Hindsight
by Florencia7
Summary: Post 4x23. After a blissful summer Damon & Elena find themselves surrounded by sad and dark secrets being revealed. While trying to deal with the regularly scheduled Mystic Falls drama of aftermaths and side-effects, they are unexpectedly confronted with Silas' new macabre plan that threatens to tear them apart forever. DAMON/ELENA, Klaus/Caroline, Jeremy/Bonnie.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** It's this time of the year again! ;)

Actually, it wouldn't be this time of the year if it wasn't for my amazing friend & beta **arabian** whose help and priceless, insightful comments encouraged me to continue writing & start posting this story :] Thank you so much, **Jennifer**! *hugs* Also, special thanks go to the wonderful **Abby**, **Carol, Daisy** and **Gabz** for making me feel like I _should_ write this story ;)

**Summary:** Post 4x23. After a blissful summer Damon & Elena find themselves surrounded by sad and dark secrets being revealed. While trying to deal with the regularly scheduled Mystic Falls drama of aftermaths and side-effects, they are unexpectedly confronted with Silas' new macabre plan that threatens to tear them apart forever. **Damon/Elena**, Klaus/Caroline, Stefan/Caroline, Jeremy/Bonnie.

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Hindsight**

**Chapter 1**

"Eyes on the road," Elena said in a mockingly scolding voice, unbuttoning her blouse and shrugging it off her shoulders.

The drizzle outside blurred the view of faraway houses somehow adding to the coziness of the car. After a few energetic songs the radio was humming now, the lights of the cars coming from the opposite direction casting shimmering rays of light that every once in a while illuminated the road and their faces.

They had spent the better part of the summer traveling. Elena didn't want to leave Jeremy alone for too long, so instead of one long journey they settled for multiple short endeavors.

The first few trips were sentimental. _"With a twist,"_ as Damon had put it and she had laughed when he had explained the idea to her. She hadn't thought he was being serious and it was his turn to laugh when she had realized that yes, in fact, he was.

They had auspiciously gotten away with... indecent behavior in Atlanta, Denver, Chicago and it was only in New York that they had had to resort to compulsion when a museum guard had exhibited an outrageous lack of understanding for people being madly (albeit perhaps a little too madly) in love.

After revisiting the past, they had set out to visit new places and making new memories had never felt to Elena more like a dream as when they had been alone in some secluded wilderness or on the edge of a mountain above the sea; and no amount of bourbon and blood could get them drunk as effectively as those kisses they shared in silence, in blinding sunlight or in darkness, until they couldn't breathe.

"I've seen this road before, Elena, and I assure you it's not nearly as beautiful and exciting as what I'm looking at right now," Damon said without averting his eyes from her, one hand on the steering wheel, the other reaching out in a recurring, playful attempt to twirl Elena's hair around his fingers.

She swatted his hand away. "I'm trying to get dressed, Damon," she said in the haughtiest tone she could muster.

"I was actually under the impression you were doing the exact opposite," Damon replied with a smirk.

Biting back a smile, Elena threw the blood-stained top onto the backseat and looked critically at a new one she had just pulled out of the bag. She was about to put it on when she noticed a stain on her bra.

"Oh no." Damon sighed in mock concern, for a moment seemingly turning his attention to the dimly lit road and glancing at the dark forests surrounding it. "Looks like you'll have to take _that_ off too."

Elena shifted her eyes to him. "It's your fault. If we didn't stop for a _snack_, I wouldn't need to worry about Jeremy seeing me all covered in blood like some kind of a-"

"Vampire?" Damon offered helpfully. Elena snorted under her breath. "And what _I_ meant by getting a snack," Damon continued, "was fetching a blood bag from the trunk, not going all _rawr_ on a cyclist," he added with a wink.

Elena narrowed her eyes at him and then defiantly straightened up and held his gaze as she moved her hands behind her back to unclasp her bra.

The brakes screeched and before Elena managed to formulate a question Damon pulled the car over to the side of the road.

"Elena. It's the third time today you're testing or rather overestimating my self-control," he said, giving her a serious look. She raised her eyebrows and after a moment of suspenseful silence laughed when he pulled her into his arms.

Her hands flew to his shoulders and she wrapped her arms around him, exchanging a long, sizzling look with him before their lips crashed together.

"We'll never make it back home if we keep it up," Elena whispered with a giddy smile, sliding her hands underneath Damon's shirt.

She stopped her ministrations when he cupped her face in his hands. "We're home now," he said under his breath in such a warm voice that it brought the brightest smile to Elena's eyes and they both stayed completely still for a few moments, just looking at each other.

It was happening so often during those past several weeks. They would suddenly stop walking in the middle of the street, don't leave the theater after a spectacle, forget to fall asleep. He would look at her and she would look at him, and that cliché about the world disappearing and ceasing to spin or spinning too fast would come completely true and take her breath away every time.

It was the scariest thing, the only ghost of fear that haunted her when she was feeling fearless all the time lately otherwise - the realization that there was a fine line between a happy, fluttery feeling which made everything bright, and an all-consuming, ardent, greedy madness; and that they had crossed that line.

"Calling 911?" Damon asked, tightening his embrace when Elena grabbed her purse and pulled her phone out of it.

She chuckled and having typed a few words put the phone away. "Telling Jeremy not to wait up," she said, smiling against his lips and holding onto his arms as she pushed herself off the passenger's seat and sat on his lap straddling him.

Damon slid his fingers into her hair and pulled her down into a heated kiss. "Who was that bad man that corrupted you so?" He asked, wrinkling his forehead in mock concern, his mouth twitching into a lop-sided smile when Elena's hands began fumbling with his belt.

Elena pretended to search her memory to answer the question. "He said his name was Damon," she finally said in a serious tone, fighting an amused smile just as Damon was. "He was... dashing," she continued, leaning down to place a kiss on his shoulder, "gorgeous, irresistible," she whispered into his ear, trying to imitate the way he had pronounced the word. Damon smiled against her neck, grazing the exposed skin with his mouth. "He found hilarity in the lengths to which he had to go to to repeatedly save my life."

"What happened to him?"

"Would you believe it?" Elena traced the lines of his face with the tips of her fingers . "He went to Las Vegas and married some failed cheerleader he had to cheat into college because she had gone off the rails and had missed the application deadline."

Damon laughed and Elena joined in, resting her forehead against his.

After a moment of looking at each other in silence they closed their eyes and whispered "I love you" at the same time.

xxxdelenaxxx

"So how is Rome at this time of the year?" Jeremy asked, holding the phone with his shoulder while pouring himself a cup of coffee in the boarding house's kitchen.

Matt chuckled. "Hey, you promised not to make fun of me. It's enough Caroline keeps texting me if I'm ready to see a psychiatrist yet."

"Well." Jeremy smiled. "If this was 'the craziest love interest contest,' you would've beaten everyone, including my sister and _that_ should tell you something. But you sound... happy," he added, slumping onto a couch near the fireplace and turning on his laptop.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Matt said with the faintest hint of embarrassment in his voice. "How is Elena?" he asked, hoping to avoid Jeremy asking him any more detailed questions, because he wasn't sure he would know what to say. He had troubles coming to terms with his own thoughts these days.

"You mean how are Elena _and_ Damon, because they don't really appear as separate people anymore," Jeremy said with a sigh.

"Is it that bad?"

"No," Jeremy grimaced, sitting back and propping a pillow behind his head. "It's worse." Matt snorted. "I went along on one of their road trips and that was more than I could handle. Staying home is much better, especially that I get ridiculous amounts of presents every time they get back. Elena's still feeling bad about sending up in flames all of my stuff, you know." They both laughed briefly.

"Did you just say 'home'?" Matt prompted cautiously, a smile clear in his voice.

Jeremy was silent for a moment. "Yeah, I guess I did," he admitted, not really able to elaborate on the subject just yet. "You know, I just... I just didn't think I'd ever see her that happy again," he added quietly with a genuine smile flickering across his face.

"That's really great to hear," Matt said in a matching tone. "So," he cleared his throat, "did you throw a party of the year yet? Now that you have the entire fancy house all to yourself?"

Jeremy smiled. "I was thinking about that. But everyone is gone for the summer. You're in Europe, Caroline and Tyler are still in Florida, April went to visit her grandparents-"

"Oh, by the way, when is Bonnie coming back?" Matt cut in.

Jeremy froze, caught off guard by the question and for a moment he thought he wouldn't be able to form a coherent answer. "I don't know," he managed to choke out, squeezing his eyes shut to trap hot tears behind his eyelids. Hope didn't make grieving any easier. Bonnie was dead and even if there was... maybe... a way-

"Is she getting along with her mom?" Matt asked, sincerely curious.

Jeremy blinked a few times, trying to regain his composure.

Suddenly a knock on the door interrupted the conversation and Jeremy couldn't be more grateful for an excuse to end the call.

The summer was coming to an end and he wouldn't be able to keep Bonnie's death a secret anymore. He didn't even know how he had managed to effectively lie to everyone for so long. But it was what Bonnie had asked him to do and he couldn't have denied her request. She had wanted her friends to have, for once, a truly happy summer, and although Jeremy knew Elena and Caroline would probably prefer the truth, he couldn't help agreeing with Bonnie that had they known, they would've never been able to experience a couple of months of perfect bliss with no fresh graves to mourn, no impending danger in sight.

The door bell rang along with another knock and Jeremy quickened his steps.

When he reached the door he pulled it open - and blinked in surprise.

xxxdelenaxxx

For the first few times he wondered if it was possible to get used to searing pain, to his lungs filling up with water, to the excruciating inability to breathe despite subconscious, desperate, pointless efforts to do so. He quickly had his answer.

It wasn't.

It hurt every single time. Every time he drowned, it felt like he was drowning for the first time. Every time was exactly the same. He lost count before he tried to keep it. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Coming back to this darkness was just as painful as sliding into the other darkness.

The first darkness was real and cold – the black safe, a cage made out of steal at the bottom of the quarry full of nightmares evoked by recurring realization that _she_ must have gone through this kind of pain and he had allowed it, he had let her drown. It was the most persistent, conscious thought.

But the moments of clarity were rare because death would drag him into oblivion every other minute.

That was the other darkness, the one he couldn't grasp, couldn't quite remember when he would find himself back in his underwater coffin, drowning all over again. The other darkness was impenetrable. All that was there were the voices that belonged to other people, a chaos of memories over which he didn't have any control.

Sometimes between falling through the crashing waves of pain from one side to the other Stefan could catch a miniscule glimpse of a clearer image, a warm glow in someone's eyes, a whispered word, a smile...

xxxdelenaxxx

"I thought you were looking for the key," Elena said, stifling a smile when Damon trailed kisses across her neck, his hand rummaging through her purse.

"I'm multitasking," he said, almost dropping the large box that was tucked under his arm.

Elena snorted, adjusting her hold on countless shopping bags in both of her hands. "Check the other side."

Damon moved his lips to the other side of her neck.

Elena laughed under her breath. "The other side of my purse!"

"Oh." Damon pressed a lingering kiss to her lips and then drew back with a smirk. He presented Elena with the key and opened the door.

"I don't want to wake Jeremy up," Elena whispered, taking a step inside and walking past Damon who was holding the door for her. "We can leave everything downstairs-"

She trailed off and stopped abruptly in her tracks.

Jeremy was standing in the middle of the parlor, a vacuum cleaner in his hand. "Before you say anything, it wasn't me," he said, raising his hands in a defensive gesture, looking at Damon with a small smile.

The room was a disaster. Shards of glass, countless broken bottles scattered on the blood- and alcohol-stained carpets, damaged pieces of furniture and shattered lamps... from the library upstairs?

"I was going to say terrific re-décor, but if it wasn't you," Damon said with a shrug, tilting his head to the side and narrowing his eyes at one of the paintings next to the fireplace that seemed to have been slashed in two.

"What happened, Jeremy?" Elena asked, perplexed.

The sound of laughter coming from upstairs caused Damon and Elena to exchange questioning glances.

"Stefan came back," Jeremy said and they shifted their eyes to him, "With Katherine."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all the amazing reviews! :) The first few chapters are relatively short but (un)fortunately they get much longer later on ;)

**Beta: arabian (**aka** arabean)** – Thank you so much! :]

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 2**

Damon knocked on Stefan's door again, this time louder and began considering just taking the door out of its frame when it opened.

"Do you have _any_ idea how late it is?" Katherine asked, pursing her lips and tilting her head to the side, the revealing silky red robe floating loosely around her.

"What are you doing here?" Damon asked, squinting.

Lazily, Katherine pushed a few strands of hair off her shoulder, adjusting the robe only to have it slide half way down her arm again. "You don't really want to know, do you?"

"I want to talk to Stefan," Damon replied sternly, glancing over her shoulder and into Stefan's room that didn't look as disorderly as the parlor. Apparently, the party had stayed downstairs. "Is he here or did he already realize it's you and left?"

Katherine shook her head with a mirthless snort. "How is your quasi-vampire girlfriend, by the way? Or is it vampire quasi-girlfriend?" She made a mock-confused face.

Damon smiled. "And how are you enjoying your human summer, Katherine? Got a donation order from Klaus yet?"

All the amusement vanished off Katherine's face immediately. She straightened up and took a step forward. "Just so you know, I'm not going to let her get away with what she did to me," Katherine said through her teeth in a stone-cold voice. "So don't be surprised if she gets accidentally staked in her sleep."

"I'm sorry, did you just threaten Elena?" Damon asked, squinting and shaking his head in pretended bewilderment.

"You know, that's exactly how that little Bennett witch responded to me too and look what happened to her," Katherine said with a sigh of feigned sadness and a glint of amusement in her eye when she noticed a flicker of confusion pass through Damon's face.

But then Stefan appeared from behind Katherine, a diary in his hand. "What's the matter?"

"Stefan," Damon said, shifting his eyes to his brother. "I forgot you were coming back today. I'm sorry about the mess downstairs."

Smirking to herself, Katherine moved away from the door and sliding out of her robe in the middle of the room disappeared into the bathroom.

Stefan leaned against the door frame and regarded Damon with curious, wary eyes. "Don't worry," he said in a mockingly reassuring tone. "I came back because I like this house, not your girlfriend." Damon's mouth twitched and he frowned, quickly looking Stefan up and down. "Wait." Stefan continued thoughtfully. "After all, it's been almost three months. But it's still Elena, isn't it?"

"_I'm not happy about Elena. But... I'm not not happy for you either. I just want you to know that."_

Damon looked at Stefan, searching his eyes for a shadow of those words he had uttered before his abrupt town-leaving, but that warm glow was gone and Stefan's eyes were now only cold and mildly cynical.

"Are you sure the sire-bond is gone?" Stefan carried on, greatly enjoying the turmoil of different emotions – bafflement, sadness, anger, disappointment, all flitting silently across Damon's face. "I mean, there's got to be a reason why no one has _ever_ loved you. It's just kind of surprising that after a century and a half it _suddenly_ happened. Just trying to make sure you don't get hurt," he added in a theatrically concerned voice.

Having entertained a flitting mental image of punching Stefan _so_ hard he would crash through the windows and fall into a vervain-filled swimming pool, Damon drew a steady breath. "You don't really mean to make Elena live under one roof with Katherine, do you?" He asked matter-of-factly, widening his eyes and then squinting.

"Of course not," Stefan straightened up. "Elena can move out any time," he said with a thin smile and stepped back, shutting the door in Damon's face.

xxxdelenaxxx

_They'll figure it out. They'll find you._

The words floated to him out of nowhere and kept repeating themselves in his mind ever since, even when the rational part of him was screaming at him, telling him it wasn't possible, that it was never going to happen.

"_You had hope. That's all I ever wanted you to have."_

If he could at least warn them... What if it was too late already? He half-wished he was truly, permanently dead, so he wouldn't be tortured by the thoughts of what Silas was now doing in Mystic Falls. He almost welcomed the moments of excruciating pain when the water would pull him into oblivion.

Some thoughts, some memories were becoming more painful than dying.

xxxdelenaxxx

"A guitar? Really?" Jeremy couldn't help grinning when he opened the biggest box that Damon and Elena had brought for him from Nevada. "You've got to stop doing that, Elena."

"Doing what?" Elena asked with a smile, her expression brightening at the look of excitement on Jeremy's face.

"Did you start reading my thoughts or something?"

Elena bit her lip. "No," she said cautiously and Jeremy arched an eyebrow on her. "But we _might_ have overheard you talking to April about starting a band," she admitted after a pause.

Jeremy laughed. "So my phone calls are being monitored. That's good to know. Next time I'll make sure to talk extensively about wishing for a Ferrari," he mused.

Elena tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, trying very hard to retain a serious expression on her face, which became easier when Damon walked into the room with a rather perturbed look in his eyes.

"What did he say?" She asked concernedly, turning toward him.

"Let's just say I wouldn't volunteer to stage a buzz-saw magic trick with him right now," Damon replied, narrowing his eyes in a brief smile. "There's something... off about him," he added with a twitch of his nose, looking away.

"Yeah," Jeremy snorted humorlessly under his breath. "He's pissed _off_."

"This is my fault," Elena said after a pause.

Jeremy huffed in exasperated indignation.

"_Elena_," Damon said levelly, his eyes holding hers when she looked up at him with a sigh.

"It's Katherine's doing," Elena said, struck by another thought. "She figured that's the easiest way to get her revenge. Now that she's human, manipulation's her only weapon. She must have manipulated Stefan into drinking human blood."

"It can't be just that. He was drinking human blood before he left and he was doing fine," Damon said with a grim expression, pouring himself a glass of bourbon.

"Maybe he's been drinking too much?" Elena said, and Damon glanced up at her from over the glass.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Or _maybe_ he's jealous. Can't we just ignore the dude?"

"Jeremy-" Elena started gently but he cut her off.

"No, Elena. He can take care of himself and even if he can't, it's not your problem. You spent enough time saving him. And now he isn't being compelled by Klaus. He is choosing to act like that. You wanted to give him the cure and he didn't take it. If he decided he could handle remaining a vampire let him handle it. Just let him be. Live _your_ life." Changing the subject to emphasize his point, Jeremy continued in a less aggravated tone. "How was Vegas?"

Instead of at least trying to pursue further the previous train of thought like Jeremy had expected her to do, Elena seemed caught off guard by the question enough to fall silent for a second. She glanced at Damon who glanced back, an involuntary lop-sided smile flickering across his face.

Jeremy shifted his eyes between them. "What is it?" He asked, sounding almost resigned, as if he was bracing himself to hear something completely awful.

Elena looked at Jeremy and with a timid smile, cautiously, lifted her hand to the level of her face and lightly moved the backs of her fingers drawing Jeremy's attention to a golden band he hadn't seen there before.

Jeremy blinked. "You're kidding, right?"

"See? I told you we'd have to compel congratulations out of him," Damon said in a conspiratorial whisper.

Elena stifled a chuckle.

"Just so you know," Jeremy said after a pause, making a disgusted face, "I won't be babysitting any creepy mind-reading kids."

Elena gave Jeremy a thoroughly unamused look.

Damon grimaced. "Have you met us? Gorgeous and sharp-witted is surely what you mean."

Jeremy seemingly ignored him. "Really, Elena? You go to Las Vegas and instead of breaking the bank you break your life?"

"Your use of 'life' is a little overdramatic here, don't you think?" Damon pointed out. "And they wouldn't let Elena in a casino anyway. She isn't old enough."

"Too bad she was old enough to marry a relic," Jeremy shot back.

"OK. Would you call me before this turns into a fight? I'll go take a shower really quickly," Elena said, rolling her eyes.

"Can't promise you that. I usually get killed before that happens." Jeremy said, and Elena gave him a sad look but he continued with a rather amused smile. "I just realized. Now I'll be living in the same house with _three_ people who have killed me in the past. I need to start a video blog or something."

"Dear Diary," Damon enunciated in a serious, ominous voice. "Another person killed me today. Will they ever learn?"

The knock on the door cut everyone's laughter short.

"Maybe Elvis reconsidered our invitation," Damon said, widening his eyes at Elena before going to open the door.

She looked after him with a smile.

"So it's Elena Salvatore now?" Jeremy asked, his tone exasperated but his eyes glimmering with amusement.

Elena shifted her eyes to him. "It was a spur of a moment, Jere," she said with a soft smile. "It just... felt right. And fun. And... magical," she whispered and laughed. Jeremy rolled his eyes. "But don't tell anyone," Elena added, slightly wrinkling her forehead. "I want to enjoy it for some time without hearing jokes about it on every occasion."

Jeremy was about to inquire what was there to enjoy about being married to a psychopath, but then his attention was drawn to the door and he froze at the sight.

"We thought that maybe you could tell us where our daughter is." Bonnie's father said in a voice heavy with barely contained anger, his eyes fixed on Jeremy as he stormed into the house.

Jeremy's face drained of all color. Elena shifted her eyes from him to Damon who looked back at her, his forehead wrinkled in confusion.

"You told me she's been spending the summer with her mother," the mayor continued, looking over his shoulder at Abby who followed her ex-husband inside. "Apparently, that was a lie, so I'd like to know what the truth is. Where is my daughter?"

The room fell silent and the silence made Jeremy's sharp intake of breath eerily loud and Elena felt her heart clench in fear at the sight of tears welling up in her brother's eyes.

Abby stopped in her tracks and stared at Jeremy in silent dismay.

"She asked me... Bonnie asked me not to tell anyone," Jeremy started in a strained voice, uttering the words as if he was in a fever. "After everything that happened she wanted-"

"Where is my daughter?"

Slowly, Damon walked around Abby and Rudy and stopped next to Elena who was looking at Jeremy, desperately trying to hold on to hope that he wasn't going to say what the tears on his face had already told her.

"I would've stopped her," Jeremy continued, his voice hoarse, on the verge of breaking. "Had I known, I would've stopped her, I would've never let her do that!"

Abby slowly lifted her hand to her face and pressed it against her mouth to stifle a sob, a scream.

Rudy drew a heavy, laborious breath. "Where is Bonnie?" He asked barely above a whisper, storms brewing in his eyes as he clenched his fists to keep his hands from shaking. "Where is Bonnie?" He repeated, his tone suddenly devoid of anger, filled with a heartwrenching plea.

Jeremy closed his eyes. "Bonnie is dead."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews! :)

**Beta: arabian** (aka **arabean**) – Thank you so much! *hugs*

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 3**

"_You brood too much. Everything on this planet is not your fault. My actions, what I do, is not your fault. I own them. They belong to me. You are not allowed to feel my guilt."_

The water seemed to drown the words echoing in Stefan's ears as he was slowly regaining consciousness, the dark and the cold encompassing every inch of his body once again. He wondered if drowning would hurt less once he started to desiccate. He tried to think of a joke Lexi could make in these circumstances but other thoughts were taking over before he managed to hold on to a brighter one.

It felt to him as if he was gradually losing control over his mind. Words and images kept coming to him, even aggressively now, perhaps in some subconscious, desperate attempt for him not to give up hope. Torturous thoughts seemed for some reason more effective than happy ones. The happy ones were making him want to sleep and never wake up. The grim ones, however...

Elena had told Damon that he was feeling guilty. It wasn't until she had told him about it that he had realized that was the reason why Damon had said those words, despite still feeling angry at the time. It hadn't been said on a whim, like he had suspected. It had been said deliberately.

He must have missed, overlooked many such moments, now that he thought about it. Although at some point he did come to notice that strange, effortlessly divided, dual attitude that Damon had seemed to developed, that allowed him to simultaneously be the most loyal brother one could hope for while doing everything he could to make Elena fall in love with him.

Or maybe there was a contradiction somewhere in there and the second part actually negated the first?...

Or maybe there was just no such thing as _making_ someone fall in love.

xxxdelenaxxx

Soundlessly, Damon closed the door and slowly approached the bed in the middle of which Elena was sitting with her knees drawn under her chin.

"How is he?" She asked in an unsteady whisper, her eyes fixed on an invisible point in space.

"Still able to come up with snappy retorts," Damon replied, sitting on the edge of the bed and then pushing himself deeper onto it until he was sitting in front of Elena. "You?" He asked quietly, raising his hand to touch her face, gently brushing off the remnants of tears with his fingertips.

"I feel like I'll never be able to sleep," Elena whispered tiredly, fresh tears gathering in her eyes. She looked at Damon and he pulled her into an embrace, tightly locking his arms around her. "Bonnie's dead," Elena said, her voice breaking into sobs, her entire body shaking from crying. "She's dead because of us. She died to save Jeremy, to bring him back." She buried her face into Damon's shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck. "She was dead for that entire day," Elena said, struck by the thought, drawing back and looking at Damon with wide eyes. "That's why she cried at the graduation and there was something in her eyes- now I remember- I saw it- And I didn't- If only-"

"Elena," Damon cupped her face in his hands and brushed his thumbs across her lips. "You couldn't have done anything."

"There's always something that can be done." She drew a breath. "You would've come up with something," she said tearfully.

Damon smiled mirthlessly. "It must be sleep deprivation that makes you say such things. I could spend the rest of eternity making a scrapbook out of my failures, being compelled by evil Originals notwithstanding," he squinted briefly, gathering her in his arms and slowly stroking her hair.

"Telling Jeremy to kill you so you wouldn't kill him like Kol compelled you can hardly count as a failure," Elena said after a pause in a slightly stern voice.

Damon's stilled his movements for a second, caught off guard by the statement. "The kid is so not getting a Ferrari if he's gonna run around blabbing things," he muttered after a pause, resuming the caressing of Elena's hair.

"_You_ should have told me," Elena argued under her breath. "But let me guess, it wasn't about me."

"It wasn't."

Elena looked up at him, giving him an exasperated look. She rested her cheek on his shoulder again and stared into the distance as the sadness washed over her. Once again it overtook her only seemingly, briefly distracted attention. "Bonnie's dead," she whispered, closing her eyes, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Damon sifted his fingers through Elena's hair. "Jeremy said he didn't tell anyone," he muttered, his forehead wrinkled in thought. Elena opened her eyes. "Looks like Katherine knew, though."

Elena straightened up. "What?"

"She said something..." Damon squinted into the distance. "She knew."

"Does it mean anything?" Elena said cautiously after a pause. "It was the spell that caused it and Bonnie would've told Jeremy if someone else was involved. So even if Katherine or someone else saw what happened it makes no difference." She looked up at Damon. "Does it?" She asked, studying his face and lifting her hand to brush a strand of hair off his forehead.

He caught her hand and kissed it. "I don't know," he muttered, the frown returning to his face. "But I do think her being here is slightly suspicious. She should be building an under-ice igloo in Antarctica right now to make sure Klaus will never find her. She wouldn't be risking her life, her freedom just to annoy us." Elena propped herself on an elbow and he looked at her, tilting his head to the side. "What's that face?"

A barely perceptible smile flickered across Elena's face. "That's my jealous face. I don't want to talk about Katherine."

Damon tugged Elena toward him and kissed her softly at first and then more fervently, until a knock on the door made them draw apart.

Jeremy walked into the room, a stash of books in his arms. He closed the door and stopped for a moment in his tracks, narrowing his eyes at Damon and Elena. "Seriously?"

"We were talking," Elena said with a frown, half-embarrassed, half-offended.

Rather failing at making the gesture surreptitious, Damon reached out to hastily smooth out Elena's tousled hair. She fleetingly darted her gaze to his hand.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "When I finally do die for good, could you please _try_ not to be making out _during_ my funeral?"

"Jeremy!"

Jeremy dropped the books on the bed and slumped down next to them. "This is everything I've read so far."

"Where did you get these?" Elena asked, scanning the titles.

Damon flipped one of the books open.

"From Professor Shane's office," Jeremy said, earning a smirk from Damon.

"Looks like someone's been flourishing from the lack of adult supervision."

Elena widened her eyes at Jeremy. "You broke into his office?"

"It's not like he'd mind."

"Jeremy-"

"I needed to, Elena," Jeremy interrupted her with a grimace. "Besides how is breaking into his office worse than killing him?"

"Hey, we didn't kill him," Damon said, waggling his finger at Jeremy. "We just... left him behind after he had turned out to be a duplicitous, delusional, dangerous, demented and... injured liability."

Elena sighed, shooting Damon a look. "Did you find anything?" She asked, shifting her eyes back to Jeremy.

"This book," he pointed to one of the heavy volumes, "is all about expression. It says that expression is the strongest kind of magic. That it... doesn't go away. Ever. Even in death, it stays with the person who was using it. So if we could find another witch who practices expression, that witch could connect to Bonnie _through_ expression and bring her back," Jeremy concluded with the tiniest smile.

"That sounds disturbingly simple," Damon said, exchanging a look with Elena.

Jeremy frowned. "This doesn't require anyone to die, if that's what you think."

"_Now_ I'm bored," Damon said, squinting. Elena poked him.

"There is one thing." Jeremy said under his breath. "When Bonnie comes back..." He trailed off and then continued after taking a slow intake of breath. "If expression brings her back, she'll have to rely on expression to survive."

"Do you know what that means?" Elena asked, wrinkling her forehead.

"No, I don't," Jeremy admitted. "But it doesn't matter, does it?" He quickly added, looking between Damon and Elena, the desperate hope in his eyes nearly breaking Elena's heart.

Damon shrugged, and Jeremy's face immediately lit up but Elena waved her hands silencing them both. "Wait. We can't just do something like that if we don't know what we're doing. Not to mention that we have to ask Bonnie if that's what _she_ wants-"

"Yeah, it's not like you ever did _not_ ask me if I wanted to be compelled," Jeremy muttered with half-hearted annoyance.

Elena opened her mouth to protest but then closed it with a sigh.

"I asked her and it is," Jeremy cut in, catching Elena off guard by the revelation.

"Oh that's right," Damon said, squinting. "That infamous ghost harem of yours. Must be getting a bit crowded in there."

"Damon!" Elena shoved him so hard he fell off the bed.

Elena put her head in her hands, took a deep breath and looked up. "So you can talk to Bonnie?" Elena asked, almost choking on the words, a flicker of a bittersweet smile flitting across her face. "How is she? And is she really OK with this?"

Jeremy sighed. "She is... fine. She said I shouldn't worry about her. But she is... dead," he whispered after a pause, tears gathering in his eyes. "And no, she isn't OK with coming back at all cost. That's why I didn't tell you any of this before. Bonnie kept asking me not too, because she was worried it'd only drag everyone into something bad."

Elena reached out for his hand and squeezed it and they just looked at each other for a longer while.

Damon straightened up and sat on the floor with his chin resting on the bed. He watched Elena and Jeremy for a few moments before speaking. "Finding a witch who practices expression _and_ will be willing to help might be tricky."

"Caroline said there may be a witch like that in New Orleans-"

"What?" Elena cut Jeremy off staring at him in disbelief. "Caroline knows about Bonnie?"

"No, I didn't tell her it was about Bonnie. I actually told her that I was asking her because I didn't want to bother Bonnie while she's spending summer with her mom," Jeremy said with a guilty frown. "I thought she might ask Klaus-"

"Now Klaus is involved?!" Elena straightened up, giving Jeremy an incredulous look. "Jeremy, you can't manipulate Caroline into getting in touch with Klaus!"

"I didn't manipulate her into anything," Jeremy protested. "She said she's been exchanging e-mails with him, so I just thought-"

"She's been what?" Elena asked, blinking.

"Skip to the latest update," Damon prompted.

"He agreed to help," Jeremy said with a small sigh.

"Why?" Elena asked, looking worried. "I mean-"

"What does he want in exchange?" Damon said, pushing himself back on the bed.

"Well," Jeremy started somewhat hesitatingly, "he's having some problems in New Orleans and... apparently, he could use a Bennett witch's help."

Elena widened her eyes at her brother. "I think I need help understanding what you've just said."

"Your baby bro said that he's promised Klaus that a Bennett witch will help him if he finds us an expression witch that helps us."

Jeremy offered a small nod to validate Damon's explanation.

Elena looked at Jeremy in growing disbelief. "Does Bonnie know that you intend on bringing her back by setting her up for a deal with Klaus? What if he will want her to do something bad?" She snorted humorlessly at her own words. "He _will_ want her to do something bad. Then what? If she refuses-"

"We'll deal with it when it happens," Jeremy said with such determination in his voice that Elena suddenly felt that there was nothing she could say that could possibly change his mind. "It doesn't matter what Klaus will want." Jeremy grimaced. "I don't care what he wants. I _can't_ care about it right now. All I care about is bringing Bonnie back, whatever it takes. Maybe it's wrong and maybe she won't like all the details, but," he trailed off, running out of breath, "I can't think about it right now, Elena" he added barely above a whisper and looked away. For a moment everyone was quiet. "We'll talk about it tomorrow," he suddenly said, looking up, sliding off the bed and heading out of the room. "Good night."

"Good night," Elena said quietly, exchanging a weak smile with him before he closed the door behind him.

"He's right, you know," Damon whispered into Elena's hair, leaning his forehead against the side of her head, draping one arm around her and tucking her hair behind her ear with his other hand. "It doesn't matter."

Elena lightly shook her head. "It does," she whispered back and could almost feel the tiniest frown appear on his forehead. She then turned her head to look at him."But I would do the same thing." She cupped his cheek with her hand, her eyes flickering between his eyes and his lips. "For you," she whispered, holding his gaze for a moment before pressing her lips to his.

They kissed like they always did, until it was dark everywhere they looked, except for the light in each other's eyes.

xxxdelenaxxx

More than an hour after Stefan had whispered a breathless good-night into Katherine's ear she was still lying wide awake. Her entire form was stiff from numb disgust, her eyes fixed on the ceiling, hundreds of thoughts running through her head, most of them frustratingly unhelpful.

Most of all she was angry with herself, the only person that had never failed her failed her now. Clearly, being human must have rendered her less observant. That or _he_ was pretty good at the pretend game. Although now that she was thinking about it, there had been some odd words and looks, but nothing she couldn't have attributed to Stefan being in a bad mood, being a tease or trying to annoy her. Somehow the kisses hadn't given him away too. If only she had slept with before they had come to Mystic Falls. But it had only been a few days since they had met in Charleston and she had thought he hadn't wanted them to rush things. She screamed at herself inwardly and gritted her teeth almost feeling the glass cut her lips, the memory of Elena forcing the cure down her throat flashing across her mind. It was all her doltish doppelganger's fault. Everything was her fault.

Stefan stirred in his sleep and Katherine shot him an icy-cold sideway glance.

She had to get herself out of this predicament somehow. She had effectively been hiding from Klaus for five hundred years. Hiding from two evil fools instead of one couldn't be much harder.

She was repeating the sentiment to herself over and over again, but the repetition didn't empower the words as much as it ought to. She wasn't used to feeling powerless. She wasn't used to feeling afraid. She refused to feel afraid. She had run from fear and she had been better at that than anyone. But she was human now and all the advantages she had accumulated over the years were gone. It was only her now and she suddenly felt like all those years ago when she had ridden into her village holding onto the last flicker hope – only to find everyone slaughtered, burned timbers and ashes sticking to her skin.

That was the one time in her life when she hadn't known what to do and she had vowed to never feel like that again.

But she felt like that right now and there was a part of her that couldn't understand how such a feeling could be confounded by the mere fact that the person laying next to her with his arm draped across her chest and his face buried in her hair - was not Stefan.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all the beautiful reviews! :)

**Beta:** **arabian** (aka **arabean**) – Thank you SO MUCH! :]

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 4**

Elena's eyes fluttered open just in time to see Damon walk out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his hips. He stopped near the desk and flipped one of the books open, his eyes skimming across one of many paragraphs they had underlined yesterday.

Elena snuggled her cheek deeper into the pillow and watched him in silence, her eyes following drops of water rolling down his skin. She liked those quiet moments. She liked catching those minuscule moments that were no longer in the past, not quite in the present, not yet in the future. The moments before another day would begin, the glimpses of how she imagined the perfect eternity to be like – looking at someone who was making her happy, who was looking at her as if she could do no wrong.

It was only when Damon put the book down and turned around that he noticed her gaze, a smirk flitting across his face.

"Good morning, Elena. See anything you like?"

"Pretty much everything. Except the towel," Elena said with a twinkle in her eyes that made Damon smile even more. Then almost simultaneously their smiles became pensive, silent recollection of yesterday's news concerning Bonnie passing between them. "Why are you up so early?" Elena asked, slipping out of the bed and tiptoeing toward him, his black shirt barely covering her thighs.

Damon sneaked his arm around her. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, the tip of her nose, her lips. "I was thinking I could try being a bigger person and prepare a breakfast for everyone," he said, propping her up onto the desk.

Elena widened her eyes at him. "That's a brilliant idea," she said, locking her arms around his neck.

"Considering our stellar track record in reconciliatory meals... I'm not so sure about that." Damon said, sifting her hair through his fingers. "But I knew you'd like it."

Elena smiled and looked at him, absently catching unruly strands of his wet hair between her thumb and forefinger and twirling it playfully in her hand.

"I'll go take a shower," she said a little breathlessly, suddenly very aware of his hands moving to rest on her hips.

Damon's eyebrows furrowed in thought. "I just realized..." he started seriously. "I don't think I rinsed my hair well enough."

Elena bit her lip and shook her head. "I can tell that you didn't," she said sounding concerned, as if they were truly discussing something worrisome. "There is shampoo all over it."

"It is?" He asked, slowly unbuttoning his shirt that she was wearing.

She nodded matter-of-factly, reaching out and loosening his towel so it fell to the floor.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Romeo and Juliet's not awake yet?"

Jeremy looked over his shoulder at Stefan who walked into the kitchen, a flicker of a sarcastic smile passing across his face.

He made his way over to the fridge and pulled a blood bag out of it. "We listened to that audiobook on our way here. Fun story. Very..." He leaned against the counter and took a sip from the blood bag, "inspiring."

"Are you going to stay here?" Jeremy asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Are you throwing me out of my own house?" Stefan asked, tilting his head to the side.

"I'm not doing anything," Jeremy replied calmly, slightly wrinkling his forehead. "I'm just asking. Really. What's your plan, Stefan?"

Stefan' lips stretched into a brief smile. "I contemplated suicide," he said somewhat wistfully. "But fate and I seem to have a difference of opinion on the subject, so I think I'll focus on the pursuit of happily ever after with my one true love instead," he said giving Jeremy a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "What do you think?"

"The ever after part may be a little difficult if that one true love is Katherine Pierce," Jeremy observed pointedly, holding Stefan's gaze.

Stefan smiled. "Good point," he said, taking another sip of blood. "A very good point indeed."

Jeremy waited for him to say something more but he didn't. "So what's the deal with you and Katherine? I thought you hated her."

"Who says I don't?" Stefan asked with a shrug.

Jeremy knitted his eyebrows in slight confusion. "So you brought her here just to annoy us?"

"Us," Stefan echoed the word, pronouncing it with exaggerated fondness. "How nice. Aren't you a cozy little family? You, Damon and Elena."

"We're doing alright," Jeremy said, suddenly feeling defensive. "It wasn't anyone's intention to make you feel left out," he added after a pause.

Stefan laughed and Jeremy blinked, slightly caught off guard by his reaction and also finding the tone of the laughter rather chilling.

"Someone woke up in a good mood," Damon said, strolling into the kitchen, looking between Jeremy and Stefan.

"Ah. Dear Brutus." Stefan raised the blood bag in a salutatory gesture. "The man who loved Rome more," he took one last swig and threw the drained blood bag into the sink, the remnants of blood splashing messily all over it. "You don't seem to be in a bad mood yourself, if sounds of morning shower sex are any indication," he added on his way out of the kitchen, causing Damon to almost drop the blood bags he had just taken out of the fridge.

His appetite effectively ruined, Jeremy put down his cereal.

Damon looked after Stefan with a grimace on his face. "What is he doing?" He muttered under his breath.

"He's been reading lots of Shakespeare, that's for sure," Jeremy said, giving up on his breakfast and putting the bowl into the dishwasher.

A doorbell caused Jeremy's mood to deteriorate even more.

"If that's Bonnie's parents-" he started, but Damon silenced him with a wave of his hand and went to open the door.

xxxdelenaxxx

Centuries of practice made it possible for Katherine to retain a steady heartbeat at all times, but once she was alone in the bathroom she allowed herself to draw sharp intakes of breath, the running water muffling her stifled groans as she was scouring her body with soap and hot water.

Had she been a vampire he would've been _in shreds_ by now and she would've been far away from here. It was difficult to resign from the revenge part, but she could at least make the other part work. After all, she was a master of escape plans and being human, while making everything harder, didn't make anything impossible. She had a chance to escape unscathed yet and she would be damned if after five hundred years of experience in running she would let herself be caught and play a pawn in someone else's game.

Lost in thought, she didn't hear the door open nor was she paying attention to the noises she was unconsciously making, because the sudden sight of Elena made her jump and hit the glass wall behind her.

"What the hell are you doing?" Katherine asked in a hoarse voice, glaring at Elena.

"I'm sorry," Elena glanced around uncertainly, feeling completely ridiculous for checking up on someone who had quite recently and quite literally tried to rip her heart out of her chest with her bare hands, but somehow she couldn't help herself. "I just... I heard someone- I heard you- I heard crying..." She shifted her eyes back to Katherine who stared back at her in anger. "Are you OK?"

Katherine blinked. "What?"

"Are you OK?" Elena repeated tentatively, her eyes flickering away from Katherine's face for a second before returning to look at her with such a sincerely concerned expression on her face that Katherine felt like smashing the shower head right into it.

"What-" Katherine started again, fully intending to at least shove Elena out of the bathroom, but then she noticed what Elena had been looking at a moment ago and her mouth twitched.

The water and the blood were swirling into the drain and when Katherine quickly looked herself over she noticed the self-inflicted bloody marks that must have been caused by the brush with which she had been washing her body in thoughtless abandon. She dropped the brush.

"Maybe-"

"Leave me alone!" Katherine cried out, picking up the brush and throwing it at Elena who gave her an exasperated look.

"Listen," Elena said, straightening up in determination, trying to remain as calm as possible and speaking in a controlled, low voice. "I know that after being on the run and on your own for five hundred years it must be hard to find it in yourself to... connect with people and learn how to trust anyone... again. I get it. But-"

"You get it?" Katherine interrupted her, stepping out of the shower, hastily grabbing a towel and wrapping it around herself. "You get what?" She whispered with menacing irony, taking a step after a step toward Elena. "You have no idea what I went through. You don't know _anything_. Everything you think you know is just _words_, with imagined meaning. I don't have to imagine anything. I've _been_ to every hell you could _think_ of." She stopped in front of Elena, glaring at her.

But Elena's gaze didn't mirror her anger. "I know," she said quietly and Katherine flinched. "I'm not saying that I know how you feel or what you feel. I'm just saying that whatever you feel, it doesn't need to stay that way. Everyone deserves a second chance. Sometimes even a... tenth chance. So if you need... help or if you need to talk-" Elena trailed off interrupted by Katherine's sneer.

"You know what I think?" Katherine said, tilting her head to the side. "I think it may really work between you and Damon." Elena wrinkled her forehead, not sure where that was going, but before she had the time to start hoping it was going anywhere nice, Katherine grabbed her blouse and shoved her out of the bathroom. "Because you're just as stupid and irritating as he was in 1864," she added, slamming the door shut.

Elena sighed and squinted at the door in exasperation before heading out of Stefan's room – only to run into him in the hallway.

"Hey."

Elena gave him a brief smile. "I was just..." She pointed behind her but then shook her head with a small sigh. "I don't even know what I was doing," she said more to herself than to him. "Never mind. How are you?" She asked in the most casual voice she could muster.

"I should probably apologize," Stefan said, knitting his eyebrows, his tone oddly reminding Elena of the times when Stefan was joking rather than apologizing, but then he looked at her as if he really meant what he was saying, so the association seemed unjustified.

Elena shrugged a little. "For what?"

"The mess... downstairs?" Stefan replied, and Elena looked away with a weak smile. "And," he continued when she shifted her eyes back to him, "for bringing Katherine here. I just... I was... upset and angry and... I just thought it'd be easier, but I can't seem to be able to get over what happened between us. I think we should talk about it."

Elena's mouth twitched and a concerned expression was replaced by a look of slightly uncomfortable distress. "I think we've exhausted the subject," she said tentatively. "I don't think talking about it... _again_ is going to help. Will you be coming downstairs for breakfast?" She asked, cutting off his attempt at replying to her previous statement.

A glint of dark sarcasm flashed in his eyes. "You eat breakfast?"

Elena's eyebrows knitted a little. "Yes, we do," she said slowly with a hint of restrained annoyance at his tone, but then something occurred to her and her expression changed into a slightly suspicious and a very concerned one. "What have you been doing all summer, Stefan? Tell me you didn't ruin what you'd managed to-"

"No, I didn't go back to being a ripper just because you started sleeping with my brother, if that's what you're asking," Stefan said, a brief grimace of relief that passed through Elena's face quickly turning into a hurt frown at his choice of words.

She thrust up her chin. "Well, I'm glad that it's not the fact that I'min love with Damon that's responsible for you acting like a jerk," she enunciated in a low, intense tone. Her day was clearly and steadily getting worse.

She turned on her heels and went down the stairs where she was immediately greeted by an unexpected guest.

"Elena!" Caroline exclaimed as soon as she saw her and threw herself into Elena's arms in a blur. "I missed you _so_ much!"

Elena hugged her back. "I missed you too," she mumbled as loudly as it was possible while not being able to breathe.

"How have you been?" Caroline asked with a grin, abruptly drawing back and keeping Elena in a firm grasp at arm's length.

"She's been great," Damon replied with a smile.

"I didn't come to talk to _you_," Caroline said, giving Damon a habitual glare over her shoulder.

"I hope not," Damon said, glancing at Elena. "I happen to have a very jealous wife," he added, walking out of the room.

Caroline wrinkled her nose in confusion. "What?"

"Nothing," Elena said, suppressing a smile and squeezing her eyes shut for a second. "Caroline, sit down. I need to... tell you something."

Caroline slumped down onto a couch. "Good news or bad news?" She asked, squinting. "Because I have my own bad news to share," she added with a sigh, her beaming expression turning grim.

"What happened?" Elena asked, both impatient to tell Caroline about Bonnie and abstractly grateful for the postponement.

"Tyler broke up with me," Caroline said with resignation rather than regret, her eyes dimmed with sadness.

"I'm sorry," Elena said with a small grimace. "What happened?" She reached out for Caroline's hand and squeezed it. "It didn't have anything to do with those e-mails, did it?" She asked tentatively.

Caroline's head shot up. "What e-mails?"

Elena drew a breath. "Jeremy said... that you are... pen pals with Klaus now?" She asked cautiously, trying to make it sound as light and humorous as possible. "Exchanging e-mails with him?" She added seeing a befuddled expression on Caroline's face.

"What?" Caroline repeated, springing to her feet. "I'm not exchanging _anything_ with him! He keeps sending me messages but I _never_ write back!"

"OK, Caroline, I'm sorry," Elena grabbed her hands and made her sit down again. "I must have... misunderstood something," she said, already inwardly rehearsing the most authoritative way of saying 'you're grounded' to her brother. Unless she had really misunderstood him. Which she had no doubt she hadn't. "Forget about it. Tell me what happened with Tyler."

"I really would rather not talk about it right now," Caroline said reluctantly. "I just spent a week thinking _only_ about that and I need a break." Elena gave her a small, reassuring smile and nodded. "Besides," Caroline continued, determined to resume a lighter tone. "It's better to wait until Bonnie comes back, because I _really_ don't want to repeat the same story twice," she said with a weak chuckle.

Elena's face became at least one shade paler and she glanced at Damon who had just come back into the room. He sat on the arm of the couch beside her.

Caroline's eyes shifted between them. "I'm _really_ not enjoying the looks on your faces right now," she said with a hint of anxiety in her voice.

"Do you want to hear the bad part or the not so good part first?" Damon asked, squinting.

"Well, while the absence of the good part is not lost on me I think I'll go with the not so good part first," Caroline said with a sour half-smile.

"Caroline-" Elena started but trailed off at the sudden sound of voices and a door being noisily slammed shut upstairs.

"Who else is here?" Caroline asked, looking toward the stairs.

"That would be... Stefan and Katherine," Elena said with a sigh.

"Stefan and _who_?" Caroline echoed in an outraged voice, the friend emergency alert rapidly changing her mood. She rose to her feet. "I need to talk to him."

"Caroline, wait. That's not-"

Katherine's laughter echoed in the house and Caroline huffed in disbelieving annoyance. "I will be back," she said and with that headed up the stairs.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Do you know where they found him?" Meredith questioned again, slowly putting the pieces together in her head. She couldn't recall all the details but she vaguely remembered hearing the name and not in the most mind-soothing context.

"They didn't find him. He came here all by himself," the doctor said with a shrug. "All bloody and in tattered clothes, but after the examination it turned out he didn't have any serious injuries except for a twisted ankle. He said that all he remembers is that he left his office at the university late one night. He doesn't remember if he had an accident or whether someone attacked him."

They stopped next to one of the rooms and Meredith looked through the glass window at the newly admitted dark-haired patient.

"I have a surgery coming up," the doctor said, glancing at his watch. "I'll see you later." He gave Meredith a smile and walked away.

When Meredith shifted her attention back to the hospital room's window, her eyes directly met Professor Atticus Shane's intent gaze.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all the fantastic reviews! :)

& In case I failed to mention it before: this story will have 22 chapters :)

**Beta: arabian** (aka **arabean**) – Thank you SO MUCH! :]:]:]

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 5**

Absently turning her now useless daylight ring around her finger, Katherine stood leaning against the wall, regarding her expression in the mirror over Stefan's shoulder.

There was no way Damon would lend her one of his cars. Or at least he wouldn't do it fast enough. By the time he would've been done amusing himself with snappy comments, _Stefan_ would've realized she had the situation figured.

If he hadn't already. A part of her wondered if he was really that easy to fool. He was supposed to be a two thousand-year-old all-powerful frightful _witch_. But then again he had spent the last two centuries under the ground, so perhaps there lay her advantage. She had spent five hundred years mingling and maneuvering her way through the crowds of humans, werewolves and vampires. Conveniently, her social skills and her intuition might just be slightly more advanced.

She forced her lips to stretch into a smile when Stefan met her gaze in the mirror.

"Green or blue?" he asked, presenting both ties for Katherine to see. He looked at her, searching her face for something that wasn't there. _Of course it wasn't. _But somehow he doubted that even if he used her, even if he could use her, something would always be missing. He had a hard time imagining that cold, calculating glint in her eyes to ever go away.

"Green," Katherine said with her best flirtatious smile.

Maybe she should tell them this was not Stefan... But team work had never been her thing and she couldn't risk getting involved in another failed attempt to kill an enemy. Especially an enemy that for all she knew couldn't be killed and didn't have any specific reasons to go after her. She just needed to find a way to escape. And escape plans always worked best on the premise of trusting no one.

"What do you think?" Stefan asked, straightening his jacket and arching his eyebrows at Katherine.

Katherine smirked, slowly making her way to him and sneaking her arms around his neck. Her train of thought continued uninterrupted as she played his game with habitual ease.

If they didn't know this wasn't Stefan, they couldn't start looking for Stefan. Granted he was still alive. But somehow she felt that he was... As ridiculous as it sounded, she was convinced she would have _felt_ it if he was dead. After all, after a century and a half she still remembered his touch enough to recognize an usurper. She wondered briefly if he would even believe that.

Smiling seductively at her fake Stefan, she mused silently that perhaps once she was far away and safe, she could text them so they could start looking for Stefan.

"You look splendid," she whispered against Stefan's lips. The door banged open and Katherine sent a grateful thought to whoever had done so with such impeccable timing even if they didn't bother knocking.

"Seriously?" Caroline grimaced in unveiled disgust.

Katherine slid her hands off of Stefan's shoulders with a pretense of annoyance. He shifted his eyes to Caroline who was standing in the doorway with hands on her hips. He looked her up and down with a half-smile.

"As your friend, I have to tell you, you're making a _monstrous_ mistake," Caroline continued, sending Katherine a brief glare before focusing on Stefan again.

"Shouldn't you be telling that to Elena?" Stefan observed dryly, pushing the closet door shut.

"I did," Caroline said. "And I failed. So now I'm in desperate need of finding a friend who _can_ be saved."

"Well, I sense a chit-chat approaching and while I'd love to witness the outcome I have something important to do today so I'll be going," Katherine said, slowly making her way toward the door. She scolded herself inwardly. She shouldn't have delivered the sentence in such a rushed manner, for she must have sounded strangely out of breath by the end of it. Ten more steps. Eight.

"Where are you going?" Stefan asked, adjusting his tie, his eyes fixed on his reflection in the mirror.

Katherine turned around. "I thought I'd check that Professor Shane's office to see if he had any detailed information about the cure." Stefan shifted his gaze to her questioningly and Katherine silently congratulated herself on the bold choice of the topic. "Apparently the cure is permanent and I can't become a vampire again," she said, pursing her lips in genuine irritation. "However, I'm not going to take anyone's word for it. Besides, every spell has a loophole, so if this one has a loophole, sure as hell I'm going to find it." She met Stefan's gaze in determined defiance and then shrugged with a small pout.

"I'd go with you, but I also have something to do today," Stefan said and Katherine wondered if she should press for details, but decided against it.

"Maybe Caroline could give you a ride to town and I could take your car?" Katherine proposed on an impulse. It was the dumbest idea to leave her car hundreds miles away, but she stupidly hadn't been able to resist the idea of a road trip with Stefan.

Stefan squinted, but Caroline cut him off before he had the time to respond.

"That's an excellent idea. Because we definitely need to talk," she said with a mirthless laugh, her eyes fixed on Stefan.

He shook his head with a smile. "If you say so," he said with amused resignation, pulling his car keys out of his pocket and tossing them to Katherine who caught them, almost digging her nails into the cold metal.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Why can't I go with you?" Jeremy asked when the first moment of astonishment after Meredith's phone call passed and Damon and Elena decided to go to the hospital together.

"Well," Damon said, grabbing Elena's hand and heading for the door. "Making-out while you're babbling in the backseat is not really fun," he muttered with a shrug, glancing at Jeremy over his shoulder before walking out of the house.

Jeremy blinked in irritated disbelief, his eyes fixed on the door which reopened a mere moment after they had closed.

"Kidding," Damon said, widening his eyes at Jeremy and leaving the door open. Jeremy rolled his eyes and quickly followed Damon and Elena to the car.

"And now," Damon said, starting the engine when Jeremy jumped inside. "You can tell us all about your hacker alter ego. Is it more or less manageable than Evilaric?"

Jeremy wrinkled his forehead in confusion, but then frowned noticing a serious expression on Elena's face when she turned in her seat as much as she could to look at him.

"Yours and Caroline's definitions of _exchanging_ e-mails seem to differ," she said, arching an eyebrow.

Jeremy closed his eyes for a second in realization and then looked away with a sigh. "I wanted to write to him as me, but-" He trailed off with a frustrated sigh. "Look, Elena. Nothing bad happened," he said earnestly. "He just thinks that Caroline wrote him a couple of e-mails."

Elena looked at her brother incredulously. "Jeremy, that's not fair to Caroline. How could you-"

"Oh, come on, Elena," Jeremy cut her off with an impatient sigh. "If she really didn't want his e-mails she could've changed her e-mail address after the first one. Or even just block his messages. So I really don't think I ruined her life by sending a grand total of three e-mails as her."

Elena blinked, a bit taken aback by the defiance in Jeremy's voice and rendered rather speechless by the direction in which his morality was evolving lately. She looked at Damon who looked back at her and shrugged. She tossed her head to the side with a sigh.

"I don't know if I can handle the two of you with my humanity on," she murmured, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well, from what I've heard no one can handle you with your humanity off, so the current arrangement still seems like the better option," Jeremy retorted in an almost indifferent tone, averting his eyes to look out of the window.

Elena blinked, shooting Damon who snorted a half-hearted glare. "I see living under one roof with you isn't doing my brother's manners any favors."

"But it's doing his sense of humor a huge favor," Damon pointed out with a smirk.

xxxdelenaxxx

"But she's evil!" Caroline almost shouted, throwing her arms in the air.

Stefan seemed to consider that for a second, but then shrugged. "That's a matter of perspective."

Caroline shook her head with a disbelieving sigh. "She killed me!"

"Damon killed Jeremy and Elena doesn't seem to have a problem with that," he argued, his nonchalant expression changing into a focused one when Caroline's reaction to his statement was a mere snort.

"That doesn't count."

"Why?" He asked, squinting. "Because he didn't _really_ die? Well, you don't look particularly dead either," he looked her up and down once again. It was a shame, really. If it wasn't for her inadvertent slaughtering of the twelve witches he could actually consider sparing her.

Caroline shook her head in exasperated amusement. "That's not the point, Stefan. The point is that Damon and Elena comparisons are irrelevant." Stefan gave her a sincerely curious look. "It's Damon and Elena," Caroline said in a tone that seemed to suggest that was explanation enough, but clearly it wasn't. Caroline sighed. "Stefan, come on, you don't really want to talk about that, do you? You know how it is with them. They're... they're weird. They always get through everything, somehow. I'm sorry." She interrupted herself, her tone changing from vigorously snappy to sympathetic. She squeezed her eyes shut.

"No, actually, that's quite fascinating," Stefan said in a tone that Caroline found strange and eerie. He was standing in front of the mirror, compulsively fixing his tie, adjusting his cuffs and... shaping his hair.

"Are you OK?" She asked suddenly with genuine worry, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I am." Stefan turned to look at her and she looked back at him. He smiled slowly. "But you're not."

xxxdelenaxxx

"I didn't expect so many concerned visitors in one day," Shane said, straightening up and making a small show of adjusting the pillow behind his back. Jeremy closed the hospital room's door and went to stand near Damon and Elena. "How have you been? It's nice to see that you made it off that island unscathed."

Elena's eyes drifted to the floor for a second.

"You're not in bad shape yourself," Damon quipped, strolling toward the bed and eying the machine monitoring the heart rate. "Are we going to do this the easy way or should I first ask those with refined sensibilities to leave?" He tilted his head to the side, glancing at Elena and Jeremy.

Shane snorted. "Back to threatening me? Really, Damon? Did it do you any good before?"

"If at first you don't succeed..." Damon said with a brief smile.

"We just want to talk," Elena said, taking a step forward. She glanced at Jeremy and drew a shallow breath. "Bonnie... Bonnie is dead."

Amusement faded away from Shane's face and he blinked, his eyes wandered briefly around the room before returning to Elena. She watched him carefully, wary to believe anything he would do or say but not able to deny that he looked genuinely shocked and saddened by the news.

"What happened?" He asked tonelessly, his lips barely moving.

"You're yet to prove you're worthy of watching our home videos," Damon said, squinting.

"Last I checked you were trying to torture information out of me, not the other way around, so I'm not sure who should prove what and to whom first," Shane retorted stiffly "And before you ask, there is no secret way to kill Silas. He truly is immortal."

"It's not about Silas. He's no longer a problem," Elena cut in, drawing Shane's attention to her. "We're here because of Bonnie."

"What do you mean Silas is no longer a problem?"

"Bonnie put a spell on him, turned him into stone and Stefan disposed of his remnants," Elena explained calmly. "Look, I understand if you don't want to help us, but-"

She trailed off, noticing a deepening frown on Shane's face.

"Bonnie put a spell on Silas?" Shane repeated with a grimace. "But she died," he said, looking between all of them in bafflement as if he tried to understand why they pretended to sound unconcerned.

"But it wasn't because of that spell," Jeremy said gloomily. "She- she brought me back and that's why-"

"No, no, you don't understand," Shane interrupted him, shaking his head with a mirthless grimace. "If Bonnie died, whatever spell she had used to bind Silas – wore off."

Elena felt cold shivers ran up her spine. "What?" She looked at Damon who shifted his eyes from her to Shane with a frown.

"Doesn't matter," Damon said with more determination than conviction in his voice. "He's locked up and buried underwater, so even if he's... awake, well, it sucks to be him."

Shane snorted sourly. "Even as a calcified statue Silas had enough power to mess with everyone's heads. And not only because he can, but because he _likes_ it. Don't you remember? What do you think he's capable of while awake, no matter where he is?" He looked away. "What happened to the cure?" He asked suddenly, darting his eyes to Elena. "Did you take it?"

"No," Elena said almost absently, biting her lip, still processing the information concerning Bonnie's spell.

Shane glanced at Damon. "So much for noble intentions of severing the sire bond, I guess."

Elena blurred toward Damon, shooting Shane a glare.

"The sire bond is gone, but that's beside the point right now," she said, closing her fingers around Damon's arm.

"And none of your business, might I add," Damon said with a frown.

"The cure is gone too," Elena added.

"Very well." Shane said with a sigh, straightening up. "So what is my business? Because I fail to see how any of your problems concern me? I wanted to dig up Silas for one reason only and it turned out to be a ploy, so I'm afraid I'm no longer interested in the subject," he said with a frown, looking between Damon and Elena.

"You are the reason why Bonnie got involved in all of this in the first place!" Jeremy spoke up in a loud voice, standing at the foot of the bed and glaring at Shane who turned his head to look at him. "So you should help us bring her back. You owe her that."

Shane narrowed his eyes at him. "Bring her back?"

"We know what we know from _your_ creepy book collection, so playing dumb is not the best way to get on our good side," Damon observed wryly.

Shane stared at an invisible point in space for a second before turning his mildly sarcastic gaze to Damon.

"I don't need to get on your good side, Damon, but you might just need to get on mine, so I'd reconsider the ill-mannered treatment."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

For a split second Shane's eyes flickered to Elena. "If I told you, I'd lose my leverage and seeing how you're back to death threats, I think I'm going to hold on to whatever I know and you don't at least until I decide it's safe to trust you."

Everyone fell silent. Damon held Shane's gaze for a few seconds. "You're bluffing," he said at last in a low voice, leaning slightly toward him.

"Am I?" Shane whispered with a brief sneer.

Elena sighed, exchanging a look with Jeremy who was still glaring at Shane.

"If Silas is free from the spell," Shane started after a pause, looking between everyone, "he knows the cure is gone and he hasn't made a move yet, and I assume from you're carefree attitude that he hasn't, it can only mean that he's planning something more sophisticated than bloody revenge."

"Like what?" Elena asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Shane tilted his head to side. "Life," he said with a weak, humorless smile.

"So we're supposed to be scared of him, because he might want to move into town and get a job?" Damon asked with a grimace, looking at Shane with barely contained anger and impatience.

"Is that your definition of life?" Shane asked, darting his eyes to him. "Never figured you for a career-oriented man."

Damon frowned. "Why do I have an uncanny suspicion you're leaving out something crucial while throwing all those vague hints at us?"

"Maybe because that's exactly what I'm doing," Shane retorted.

"Yeah. Bluffing," Damon repeated, holding his gaze.

Shane gave him a small, sour smile. "You know, this method is not going to work. _I_ have nothing to lose either way. Consider this last sentence a vague hint too," he added under his breath. Damon narrowed his eyes at him.

"How did you escape off that island?" Elena asked. "How do we know you're not doing Silas' bidding right now?"

"How can we know _you_ are not Silas?" Jeremy added, watching Shane closely.

Shane shrugged. "You can't to be honest," he continued after a moment of silence, glancing at his hands. "I can't either. I don't know how I got back here. And if you find it suspicious that I'm even alive, well, so do I. So whatever proof you need to believe that I'm telling the truth, it probably won't be proof enough. But," he sighed, glanced at Jeremy and then looked at Elena. "I want to help you bring Bonnie back. I never meant her any harm. And if we bring her back, the spell she put on Silas will be restored."

"So you're just going to do it to clear your conscience," Damon said doubtfully, looking at him unblinkingly.

"My conscience?" Shane's lips twisted into a brief, sour smile. "I'm going to do it for Bonnie. And for humankind," he added in such a tone that Damon thought there was half a chance he was being sinisterly sarcastic and half a chance he was downright crazy. "After all, according to the story, Silas wants to rise and rule the world and he most certainly isn't going to achieve that in a benign way."

"See, here is the part I don't understand," Damon's forehead wrinkled in exaggerated confusion. "How dreams of world domination can be reconciled with having a death wish?"

"Maybe the death wish was a ruse intended to evoke pity. After all, would you more readily assist a broken-hearted fellow commit a suicide or conquer the world and enslave everyone?"

"Looks like you have a very clear idea of what his plans are."

"I know what I've read," Shane said with a small shrug, in that non-committal, effortlessly convincing way of his that was believable until he had proved to be more than a little unreliable and mentally unstable. "Two thousand years ago he was the most powerful creature alive. He was known for severely punishing those who crossed him. But if you prefer to believe he's going to take a loan and open a bakery, suit yourself."

Elena exchanged a longer look with Damon before shifting her eyes to Shane again. "I'll go find Meredith and see if we can check you out right now."

"I'll go with you," Jeremy said, following Elena out of the room.

An ironic smile flitted across Shane's face when the door closed behind them. He glanced up at Damon who just leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and was looking at him in silence. Shane arched an eyebrow.

"I made a New Year's resolution not to torture people on weekdays," Damon said with a flitting smile.

Shane's lips twitched into a humorless grimace. He seemed to consider something for a moment before he spoke in a low, controlled voice. "I should probably apologize for those nasty things I said to you."

Damon blinked, slightly caught off guard by the sentiment. "Well, you were mostly right." he allowed with a small shrug studying Shane with renewed wariness.

Shane leaned back against the low headboard of the hospital bed. "Yeah, maybe," he said pensively. "You know, I really thought this would work," he continued after a brief pause. Damon listened, trying to make sense of his words and attitude and figure out how much of it was real. For now he went with about ninety-seven percent of it being an act. "I believed they would come back. Was it me or Silas? My own stupidity or his mind control?" He shifted his gaze to Damon as if he actually expected an answer.

Damon looked back at him, searching his eyes for something suspicious and doubtful, but finding only exhaustion, resignation and pain. "I don't think it was much of mind control what he was doing," Damon said after a pause. "He was merely taking advantage of what was in and on everyone's mind already."

Shane looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, different albeit barely perceptible emotions passing through his face. "It was wrong what I did. But I would've done it again if there was a chance-"

"I get that," Damon interrupted him brusquely in mid-sentence. "But if I were you I wouldn't try to continue withholding any crucial pieces of information, because our tolerance for that has decreased dramatically."

"There's something you need to know," Shane said almost immediately, as if he was already planning on saying the words anyway. "I never told you that part of the story because I knew you wouldn't risk putting Elena in danger just to get the cure you didn't even want."

The expression on Damon's face changed from mildly curious to grimly alarmed. He pushed himself away from the wall and took a few steps toward Shane. "What does Elena have to do with Silas' story?"

Shane drew a breath. "She was a witch. That girl whom Quetsiya killed was a witch. It was an act of ultimate disloyalty for one witch to betray, to kill the other. An act against nature and as you must know by now nature is very touchy about its balance."

"Get to the point."

"When Quetsiya killed the girl, nature found a way to undermine the act by creating a... doppelganger of the girl." Damon frowned, his mind reeling as he tried to figure out where the story was going. "You might have heard about her," Shane continued and then added in a low voice. "Her name was Tatia."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all the awesome reviews! :)

& Just to clarify (because I was asked about that): I didn't mean that Tatia was the girl from Silas' story (as far as we know that girl lived 2000 years ago and Tatia 1000 years ago). I meant that Tatia was the first doppelganger ;)

**Beta: arabian** (aka **arabean**) – Thank you so much! *huggles*

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 6**

Elena kept glancing at Damon throughout the ride home, wondering what Shane had apparently said to him that put Damon in such a dire mood. She reached out and placed her outstretched palm on his thigh. His eyes darted to her hand and then to her face and he gave her a brief but warm smile covering her hand with his and squeezing it lightly.

"So the cure is permanent?" In the backseat, Jeremy continued his interrogation asking Shane a question after question. "Katherine can never become a vampire again?"

"If we're to believe what's written then, yes, she can't be turned into a vampire ever again," Shane replied.

"That's convenient," Jeremy said, squinting out of the window.

"What do you mean?" Elena asked, glancing at Jeremy over her shoulder.

"Maybe we could convince Klaus to help us not in exchange for Bonnie's help, but for Katherine," Jeremy said, shifting his eyes to Elena who widened her eyes at him. "I thought you were worried about weaving Bonnie into a deal with Klaus?"

"Yes, I was and am still worried about that," Elena said, studying Jeremy's face in stupefaction, somewhat alarmed by the indifference in his tone. "But it doesn't mean we're going to treat _anyone_ like a blood bag and just throw her into Klaus' clutches."

Jeremy wrinkled his forehead. "You're kidding, right?" Elena rolled her eyes in exasperation. "She killed me," Jeremy said, leaning forward as much as the seat belt allowed him. "She killed Caroline. She tried to kill you and she pretty much is the sole reason why _all_ of us are in this mess right now. Do you seriously have a problem with handing her over to Klaus?"

"What your sister has a problem with is that you don't seem to have a problem with anything at all these days," Damon observed melodically, glancing at Jeremy in the mirror.

With a huff, Jeremy threw himself against the back of his seat.

Shane's eyes flickered thoughtfully between everyone. "What do you need Klaus' help for?"

"We need to find a witch who practices expression to bring Bonnie back," Jeremy said, turning his head towards him.

Shane shook his head. "Not necessarily. What you need is a connection and in order to establish the connection you need strong sources of energy on both sites. Expression can be such a source, but it's not the only one."

"Before there was the internet there was Professor Shane," Damon muttered, turning off the engine in front of the boarding house. Elena stifled a smile.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Stefan," Liz stopped in her tracks as soon as she entered her office, surprised at finding someone waiting for her there.

"Sheriff Forbes." Stefan smiled politely.

Liz smiled back and closed the door behind her. "I didn't know you were back in town," she said cautiously, sitting down. Something about Stefan's demeanor struck her as odd right away. "What brings you here?" She asked, propping her elbows on her desk.

"I need help finding some graves," Stefan said matter-of-factly, his lips curving into a smile when Liz arched an eyebrow. "I know it's a bit of an odd request, but... it's necessary. I need to know where are graves of all the people who died when Pastor Young blew up that farm are."

"Well..." Liz sat back, her forehead wrinkling in slight confusion.

"Could you help me with that, Sheriff?" Stefan asked, his eyes boring into Liz' with strange intensity.

Liz blinked, forcing herself not to look away. She smiled. "Of course."

xxxdelenaxxx

When they opened the door, the first thing Elena noticed was Caroline massaging her neck and scrambling to her feet with a stifled groan.

"Caroline! Are you OK?" Elena rushed to her, looking her up and down in concern.

"No, I'm not!" Caroline said, irritation the prevailing emotion in her voice. "Stefan snapped my neck!"

"What?" Elena asked, widening her eyes at her.

Damon blinked, his brows furrowing at the unpleasant thought that suddenly occurred to him. He glanced at Shane who seemed to share the supposition.

"What happened?" Jeremy echoed, looking around the room.

"I have no idea!" Caroline threw her arms in the air. "He snapped my neck! I was talking and he just... snapped my neck!"

"Well, that explains it," Damon snarked, earning a death glare from Caroline.

"Is he still here?" Elena asked, helping Caroline to sit down.

"I think he went out... I don't know. But... why did he do that?" Caroline shook her head, still finding what had happened completely incredulous.

Elena sighed but then glanced over her shoulder at Damon who had just pulled out his buzzing phone.

"Liz." He said. His eyes fixed on Elena who used her vampire hearing to listen up to the conversation.

Caroline's eyes darted to Damon as well.

"I just had a strange encounter with Stefan," Liz said under her breath, glancing right and left as she hurried across the parking lot in front of the police station.

"Yeah, well, my brother's been a little moody since he came back," Damon muttered with a strained smile. "But you're calling which means he didn't kill you, so it looks like you had it easier than some people anyway," he said, glancing at Caroline.

Liz drew a breath, stopping next to her car. "Damon, he tried to compel me."

Damon blinked. "What?"

"I mean, at least that's what it looked like. I don't even know," she chuckled dryly. "I think he actually did compel me, but I'm on vervain," Liz grimaced in confusion, getting into the driver's seat. "It's just that he asked me a question and I just felt like I had to tell him the truth. Damon?" She prompted when there was a prolonged moment of silence on the other end.

"Do you know where he's now?" Damon asked at last in a low, grim voice.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I'm going with you."

Elena said, catching up with Damon half way to the car.

"Elena."

She grabbed his arm. "I want to go with you," she insisted in a softer tone.

A flicker of conflicting emotions flashed in Damon's eyes, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. "No, Elena, I just... need to make sure that we're right. I'm not going to do anything. Just let me go and see if... that's really not Stefan," he added in a slightly strangled voice, grim implications of what it meant if their suspicions were true overwhelming him for a second.

"What if we are right and he figures out what you're doing?" Elena's hand was still clasped around his arm.

"The more reason why _you_ shouldn't go," Damon said with feigned lightheartedness, briefly narrowing his eyes at her and attempting to walk off.

Elena blurred in front of him.

Damon huffed in exasperation averting his eyes from her for a second. Then, grabbing her hand he spun her around in his arms and inched his lips close to her ear. "Don't make me handcuff you and lock you up in the basement."

"I'm not sure about the basement part but the handcuffs sound fun," Elena said matter-of-factly.

Damon stifled a chuckle, burying his face in her neck. "Elena-"

She used his momentary distraction to free herself from his embrace, pin him against the car and sneak her arms around his neck. "I mean it," she whispered against his lips, sliding her hands down his body.

Damon tilted his head to the side, smirking at her faintly. "Correct me if I'm over-analyzing it, but," he kissed her back when she kissed him, "do you really think kinky promises are going to convince me to put you in lethal danger?"

Elena squinted. "No. But now I have your car keys, so you don't really have a choice," she said with a bright smile, taking a step back and dangling the car keys she had just pulled out of his back pocket in front of his face.

Damon rolled his eyes.

"I'll drive," Elena called to him, jumping into the driver's seat.

"And here I was thinking I only have to be on guard around you when you have your humanity off," Damon muttered, getting into the car.

"Well, some tricks are much more effective when emotions _are_ involved," Elena said with a smile, starting the engine. "Besides, it's not like I was bluffing," she added, glancing at Damon.

"Neither was I," Damon said quietly after a pause and before a frown of confusion even appeared on Elena's face, her head fell to the side and she collapsed forward, Damon catching her before she hit the steering wheel.

With a grimace, Caroline pulled the syringe out of Elena's arm. She opened the car door and with Jeremy's assistance proceeded to carry Elena out of the car.

"I don't want to be you when she wakes up," Caroline said, glancing at Damon.

Damon scooted over to the driver's seat, his eyes fixed on Elena. With a twitch of his nose, he tore his gaze from her and glanced between Caroline and Jeremy. "And when the two of you run out of subjects to talk about you may ask Jeremy about his, I mean, _your_ correspondence with Klaus," Damon said with a wink and drove off.

Caroline blinked a few times before giving Jeremy a questioning look.

Jeremy shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. "I hate him," he mumbled with a sigh.

xxxdelenaxxx

The trees around the graveyard looked gloomy even in broad daylight, but the place still radiated with strange peacefulness and Damon wondered whether there was more depth to the peace than it seemed. He couldn't imagine how the calm of any kind could possibly be better than her warm lips molded against his, her soft hands on his face. Everything else just seemed so cold and insignificant in comparison.

He spotted Stefan's silhouette near one of the graves. Standing motionlessly, his hands in his pockets, he appeared to be reading inscriptions on the tombstones.

"What are you doing here?" He asked when Damon was just a few steps away. He didn't turn around, merely glanced sideways when Damon stopped next to him.

"Liz called me, said you were acting weird, so I thought I'd check for myself what you're up to," he said, looking straight ahead and then turning his gaze to Stefan, who smiled briefly and averted his eyes from him.

For a moment they stood without speaking and the wind was the only sound breaking the silence.

"So tell me, Damon," Silas said at last, scanning the grass before turning his head to look at Damon who looked back at him with that shadow of a grimace on his face that he was yet to interpret. "What gave me away?" He asked slowly, tilting his head to the side. "Was I too funny?"

Damon's mouth twitched, that tiniest flame of hope doused. "Too rude," he answered after a pause, his voice low and steady.

Silas' faint, sarcastic smile faded as if brushed away by a gust of wind. He sighed and then punched Damon in the face so quickly and forcefully that he fell to the ground.

"Don't take it the wrong way," Damon said, making a show of stifling a chuckle, "but your combat methods are slightly old-fashioned. A lot's changed over the last two thousand years."

"Really?" Silas raised his eyebrows, watching Damon spring back to his feet. "It seems to me the most important things are timeless. And _that_ was for helping the witch with the spell."

"Don't know how it was two thousand years ago, but these days we believe holding grudges is unhealthy."

"Well, I believe in an eye for an eye technique."

"Ah, but that's because you've missed the whole new development of this idea. There was that guy- Never mind," Damon interrupted himself with a twitch of his nose, the look on Silas' face telling him that being conversational was not going to cut it. "What do you want?" He asked matter-of-factly, squinting.

"Clearly, you believe I don't want to kill you, otherwise you wouldn't have come here."

"Well, it crossed my mind that if you're impersonating my brother of all people it may be because you want to hang out."

"Actually..." Silas paused as if deliberating what exactly he wanted to say, "I'm not. Impersonating your brother," he added seeing the lack of comprehension on Damon's face. "We just happen to look the same. _This_ is my real face."

Damon's eyebrows furrowed in bewilderment, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Where is Stefan?"

"Oh, I'm sure you can figure that one out. However, I'd appreciate if you waited with getting him back until I leave town to avoid some awkward meetings in public places. As I have noticed, this town isn't very big and I'm not sure how many people would buy a long-lost twin story."

"Sounds negotiable," Damon said warily. "So you're leaving town? I don't want to sound inhospitable but I think that's a terrific idea."

Silas smiled briefly. "I'm sure you do. You see, I would've been gone not only from this town, but from everywhere, if you hadn't wasted my cure. But let's let bygones be bygones. Now I'm going to try and just... be happy. I could've done worse than being eternally happy, right?" Damon opened his mouth to offer another noncommittal comment, but Silas cut him off, his voice changing from conversational to sinister within a single moment. "Let's skip the part when you pretend not to know that Elena's one of Arya's doppelgangers."

"And what's the significance of that?" Damon asked smoothly, his face unreadable.

Silas smiled but then his expression became clouded with regret. "I want to bring her back. I want to bring my Arya back."

Damon looked at him for a second before raising his shoulders in a careful shrug. "I can't say I don't sympathize."

"But there is one little problem."

"Of course there is," Damon said sourly.

"Even with all the energy I can gather," Silas said, glancing around the graveyard. "It still won't be enough to bring her back body and soul, so to speak," he paused. "I can only bring her spirit back." He looked at Damon in silence for a while, waiting for a hint of understanding to appear on his face and only when he saw that barely perceptible flash of horrified panic he had expected to see he added in a low voice. "And I need a body to put it in."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all the stunning reviews! :)

& I don't really know how to tell you this but... we'll be going on a short hiatus. The reason is that I won't have the access to the internet for 3-4 weeks which makes me very sad, but unfortunately it's work-related, so there is little I can do about that. The next chapter will be posted at the beginning of September. "I know I don't deserve your forgiveness but I need it" ;)

**Beta:** **arabian** (aka **arabean**) – Thank you SO MUCH! :]

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 7**

The blood in Damon's veins turned cold. All the images and sounds were still for a second.

"Why are you actually telling me this?" Damon asked, trying to sound merely irritated, trying to control his voice so it wouldn't shake with dread.

"I'm telling you this because it doesn't have to be a permanent state of affairs and we may yet all walk out of this happy," Silas said, making Stefan's goofy smile look perfectly creepy.

"I'm listening," Damon prompted with barely contained impatience, even if it was easy to infer from Silas' prolonged silences that he was doing them on purpose.

"The reason why I don't have enough power to bring Arya's body back along with her spirit is because Quetsiya is blocking my flow of power whenever I try to reach to the other side."

"Well, hell hath no fury," Damon observed sourly.

Silas grimaced humorlessly, glancing around the cemetery. "I happen to think it applies to women and men alike," he said briefly, before resuming his train of thought. "Here is the deal I can offer you." He turned toward Damon. "I perform the ritual, bring Arya's spirit here, put it in Elena's body while preserving Elena's spirit elsewhere. I will keep it safe until you convince Quetsiya to release the passage for Arya's body to pass through. When she does, I will put Arya's spirit back where it belongs and return Elena's spirit to Elena's body. Clear and fair, is it not?"

Damon stared at Silas, half-expecting him to start laughing after finishing his speech, for he couldn't possibly be as insane as to consider his _deal_ even remotely acceptable. But Silas didn't laugh.

Wheels in his head turning at light-speed, Damon drew a shallow breath. "I have a better idea." Silas raised an eyebrow. "Why bother with doing the same thing twice? Just postpone the ritual until we convince Quetsiya to free the passage," he said, trying to make it sound like the simplest and most natural solution in the world.

The corners of Silas' mouth twitched in a cynical smile. "Ah, but you see, your scenario misses the crucial factor of you feeling _motivated_ to help me in the first place and in a timely fashion too." Silas lowered his voice to an emotionless, slow whisper as if he was reading an electronic device manual. "If I postpone the ritual, I'd most likely end up receiving 'we're working on it' updates from you for the rest of eternity, so I figured that it'd speed up the entire process if you were working on it knowing that until I have Arya's body back I'm resigned to enjoying the company of the body with her spirit in it. Over and over and over again." His voice gradually faded into silence and he held Damon's blazing gaze for another second before straightening up and adding in a lighthearted manner. "Do we have a deal?"

xxxdelenaxxx

All of the frantic thoughts running through Damon's mind made the ride home feel shorter than ever. There seemed to be a dead end at the conclusion of every idea; a vicious circle of not good enough schemes cascading one over the other.

When he got out of the car he rushed to the house, driven by an irrational fear, impatient to see her.

Caroline and Jeremy waylaid him as soon as he entered but he waved off their specific questions and just gave them a gist of the meeting before blurring into the basement.

"I'm not talking to you," Elena said without looking up, her eyes firmly fixed on the floor when Damon opened the cellar's door and walked inside. She was sitting against one of the walls, her knees drawn up and her chin resting on her folded hands.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw that he looked her up and down in that unsettling manner that never failed to ignite most irrelevant feelings. Elena didn't really expect an apology, but she didn't expect him to do what he did either: lower himself to the floor next to her and just unceremoniously pull her into an embrace, cutting her well-rehearsed rant short.

It was a relief to be in his arms after she had spent hours worrying about him and a part of her relished in it. The other part, however, sensed anxiety in the gesture and she frowned, snuggling closer to him.

"Did you really think I would take you along for a possible confrontation with a two thousand-year-old evil witch?" Damon muttered after a longer moment of silence.

Elena's eyes snapped to Damon's face. "I thought you'd take into consideration that I wanted to go!"

"Have I ever taken into consideration your suicidal tendencies before?" He asked, sincerely baffled. "Why would I start doing it now?" He held her gaze, her eyes sparkling with anger but also with an undivided attention that could only be fueled by positive emotions. "Just in case this isn't crystal-clear by now," he continued in a firm, low voice, "I will never put you in harm's way or let you put yourself in harm's way. You may say what you want, keep trying convincing me otherwise, be upset, mad, hate me, whatever you like, Elena but that's never going to change."

Elena shook her head in exasperation, her hair falling away from her shoulders. "I'm not some damsel-in-distress, Damon! I can take care of myself!"

"I know you can," he grimaced. "That's not the point."

"Then what is the point?"

"The point is that walking into the lion's den just for the sake of walking into the lion's den is stupid."

Elena sighed, narrowing her eyes at him in frustration. "That's not what I was doing!" She turned fully toward him. "I didn't want you to go there alone. Why is it OK for you to pull all the stops to protect me, but when I'm trying to do something it's regarded as me having a death wish? I don't have a death wish! I just don't want anything bad happen to you and I feel safer when I'm near you because I love you!" She said in one breath.

"Well, maybe that's the problem," he retorted gruffly and Elena glared at him genuinely upset by the callback but she didn't resist when Damon rolled his eyes and grabbed her, pulling her closer to him. He hugged her, holding her close in a very tight embrace.

She closed her eyes, pressing her cheek to his. "You're _so_ annoying," she muttered.

"Same with you," he muttered back.

"We've got to stop doing that," Elena whispered after a while and Damon slowly opened his eyes. "We always try to do things on our own." She grimaced and drew back to cup his face in her hands. "That's the problem, Damon. It makes us more vulnerable. We've got to be able to tell each other _everything_. That's the only advantage we can always have. No secrets. No lone hero missions. There is always a way to do it so we're both OK with the way it's done."

Damon looked at her, torn between agreement and just brushing it off. He covered her hands with his and took them off his face but didn't let go. "You're right, Elena," he said quietly and she gave him a barely perceptible nod and a smile. "But-"

She placed her forefinger across his lips, cutting him off. "No, no, no. Don't ruin it," she said, her eyes smiling. He smiled back. "Damon, this is us. We've always been honest with each other. Sometimes even when it hurts. Why can't we apply the same honesty to putting ourselves in danger?" She tilted her head to the side and smiled a little.

"Like you're the one to talk," Damon muttered, tracing the contour of her face with the backs of his fingers. "O, thou martyr princess." Elena narrowed her eyes at him. "So if I ask you not to go somewhere, you won't go?" he asked, sliding his fingers into her hair and lightly holding her head, his eyes boring into hers.

Elena straightened up, drawing in a breath. "As long as I know exactly why and exactly what you're going to do in the meantime, "yes," she said firmly.

Eyebrows furrowed, Damon regarded her for a moment in silence. "This sounds like a vicious circle to me," he said at last in a rather unhappy voice. Elena frowned. "Say I tell you to stay home while I go face certain death and tell you that's _exactly_ what's gonna happen. Then what?"

"That's the point." Elena said earnestly. "If we'll be telling each other everything, something like that _won't_ happen. We'll have to find another way. Together."

Damon tilted his head to the side, a flicker of resignation passing across his face at the hopeful look in Elena's eyes. She looked at him, so brightly, so openly with trust radiating from her eyes and he suddenly found himself believing that she was right, that this could work, that he could do this – that they would survive.

He nodded and she smiled, falling into his arms when he pulled her toward him and kissed her. "I love you," he whispered into her hair, cradling her to him.

Elena nestled her face into his neck, smiling. "I love you too."

Damon sighed. "We were right," he said after a pause in an almost detached voice, his face still buried in her hair, his voice slightly muffled. "It's Silas."

Elena's eyes widened in dismay and she hastily drew back. "And you're telling me this only now?!" She gave him an incredulous look. "You talked to him? He just... talked to you?" Elena looked at Damon searchingly, her hands subconsciously beginning to wander all over his body, as if checking for injuries. "What does he want? Why is he pretending to be Stefan? Is he possessing him or just pretending to look like him?"

"Neither," Damon replied with a grimace.

Elena's forehead wrinkled in confusion.

"He claims that's his... real face," Damon explained with another sigh.

"What?" Elena almost gasped, blinking. "What do you mean his real face? How can it be his real face? It can't be his real face. If that was his real face it would mean-" Elena broke off in mid-sentence, the abstract ridiculousness of the concept fading into utter astonishment when Damon nodded his confirmation to what she had only begun putting into words. "But then... I mean... Where is Stefan?" She asked, jumping to another thought, a grimace of bewilderment still on her face.

Damon gave her a grim look.

Elena wanted to ask what he was thinking but then understanding dawned on her. "Oh my God. He's in the quarry?"

"I suspect so."

"How do we get him out?"

"That's the problem," Damon muttered dejectedly. "The whole point was for that safe to be impossible to be fished out of there by anyone ever."

Elena winced, running her hand through her hair. "So what are we going to do?"

"He said he's on his way."

Elena and Damon's eyes flew to the door where Caroline stopped to lean against the door frame, slightly shaking her phone on them before slipping it back into her pocket.

"Who?" Elena asked automatically, but Caroline's resigned expression was answer enough. "Klaus?" Caroline nodded and Elena closed her eyes with a grimace. "This is not a good idea."

"Well, that's the only idea, so there you go," Caroline said with a sigh. They were all silent for a second.

"Oh, come on, what are you still doing here?" Jeremy asked suddenly appearing next to Caroline and peering into the cellar. "You were supposed to come upstairs. Shane's waiting."

"What if Silas crashes our meeting? I don't think it's a good idea to talk here if he technically lives here," Caroline said crossing her arms over her chest.

"He actually said he's not coming back," Damon said, receiving questioning looks from everyone. "He said he's going to leave us alone for a week... until the ritual."

"What ritual?" Jeremy asked suspiciously.

"He wants to bring someone back from the dead," Damon said reluctantly.

Caroline arched an eyebrow. "So you just had a heart-to-heart about your plans for the future?"

"Who does he want to bring?" Elena asked with a frown.

"And what does it have to do with us?" Jeremy added.

"Can we play twenty questions at some another time? You said Shane's waiting," Damon said, standing up and helping Elena to her feet.

With a huff, Caroline turned on her heels and headed for the stairs. Jeremy hesitated for another second but then rolled his eyes and went to follow Caroline.

"Damon-" Elena started, grasping his hand.

"Elena, if we bring Bonnie back, it won't matter, because her return will turn Silas back into a calcified statue," he said with as much cheerfulness as he could afford.

Elena narrowed her eyes at him. "Damon."

"Elena," Damon said, mirroring her expression but then he added in a defeated, serious voice. "I will tell you later."

She grasped the lapels of his shirt. "You will," she said in a playfully threatening tone, although her eyes remained serious and she felt a pang of anxiety when he didn't smile back at all.

xxxdelenaxxx

Damon poured himself a glass of bourbon and slowly sauntered back to where everyone was seated in front of the fireplace.

"What's the catch?" Caroline asked after a prolonged moment of silence that filled the room. She looked between everyone before her eyes rested on Shane.

"What do you mean?" Shane asked with that effortlessly open look on his face that so far had proved less than dependable.

"Bonnie's source of energy is expression. Jeremy's source of energy are his feelings for Bonnie. They connect, some witchy juju occurs during the full moon and Bonnie's back. There must be more to it than that," Caroline said with a humorless snort. "I mean, who's gonna guide them through this? Is there a spell that goes with the whole thing? Don't we need a witch? You're not a witch. And there is no guarantee Klaus will find us a witch," she added, sending a meaningful glare Jeremy's way.

"We don't need a witch," Shane said confidently. "You see, expression can truly give you enough strength to do almost _anything_," he said, his tone falling into the fascination mode that Damon half-hoped was entirely fake, because that would at least be easier to deal with than the guy being a complete lunatic. "But so do human emotions," Shane said, glancing at Elena who flashed back to his words at the Lake House.

"_You know, in all my world travels the one spell that I've never found is how to break somebody from loving too much."_

"And I don't have to, I don't know, kill thirty six people to access them?" Jeremy cut in with a humorless grimace.

Shane's eyes darted to him, his expression sincerely grim. "I really believed they would come back," he said quietly, holding Jeremy's gaze.

"Along with all other _dead_ dead supernatural creatures," Damon reminded him. "Can't blame us for finding your interest in such a small-scale scheme a little suspicious," he said with a brief smile as he raised a glass in Shane's direction and swallowed the remnants of bourbon in it. "Also..." Damon continued, before Shane had the time to reply. "At the risk of sounding like a complete jerk..." he trailed off again, his eyes darting to Jeremy and then back to Shane. "How do we know that little Gilbert's feelings are strong enough to create the connection?"

Jeremy's eyes widened in anger and indignation. He glared at Damon who shrugged in mock-apology.

"We don't," Shane answered calmly to Jeremy's further annoyance.

Despite having asked the question Damon's face slightly fell at the answer. "Then we need a back-up plan," he said with a sour grimace, putting the glass away. Elena watched him carefully, finding the unprecedented anxiety radiating from him disconcerting.

"My feelings are strong enough!" Jeremy argued ardently and Caroline gave him a reassuring smile. "How can you question that?"

"Jeremy, we're not questioning your feelings," Elena said softly, glancing at Damon who was looking at Shane with a grim expression on his face. "Is the full moon part indispensable?"

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena woke up to a maelstrom of grim thoughts, despite the imprints of innumerable sweet kisses still lingering on her skin. Everything that Damon had told her - she felt like she should put all of that behind a glass wall to even be able to deal with it at all.

A few months ago she had reconciled with the notion of dying. She had been ready to die in the sacrifice if it meant everyone's safety; she had been ready to die when Matt's truck had gone over the Wickery Bridge; ready to die crying on Jeremy's grave when all the grief and guilt had come back rushing in.

But right now it was different. Having your soul, your spirit or whatever it was called ripped out of your body and replaced with somebody else's seemed like more than just dying. What would happen to such a spirit? Would it find peace? Would it be doomed to aimlessly wander around the world? Would it be in pain? Endlessly?

She feared the pain most. But not the pain caused by the sense of non-existence or physical suffering. It was the thought of being separated from _him_ that took her breath away every time she got close to imagining the idea. It was the coldest feeling, the most terrifying one. Thinking about it felt worse than dying and she would know.

There was also Stefan at the bottom of the quarry, on the neverending brink of death, alone in the darkness and that thought was devastating, especially that she felt like she had contributed to that darkness. _"The rest of us will be fine. We'll survive."_ She tried not to dwell on it much, but the look in his eyes made her heart clench every time she remembered it. She had wanted to give him the cure first and foremost to make his life happier and easier, but his interpretation of the gesture had seemed to be limited to acknowledging that she was OK with him dying in a few decades while her and Damon would continue living happily ever after.

Elena sat up in bed, tucking her hair behind her ear and glancing at the empty space in bed by her side. With a frown she looked around, feeling relieved at the sight of Damon standing near the window with a drink in his hand. She watched him for a few moments before soundlessly scooting off the bed.

Damon flinched, caught off guard by his leather jacket hitting him on the face when it landed on his shoulder. He turned around, giving Elena a questioning look, his eyes following her as she scrambled off the bed. After rummaging briefly through the drawers and their closet she started putting her clothes on. For a moment he just focused on the scene before him and couldn't help but smile at seeing her so comfortable, so at home here, with him.

"Come on. We're going," Elena said determinedly, looking at Damon and grabbing her jacket.

Damon grimaced in confusion. "Where?"

"To Stefan. Let's go."

xxxdelenaxxx

The hills surrounding the quarry were dark and gloomy and the water looked like a black, shimmering mirror.

Damon sat on the grass and pulled Elena down onto is lap. She leaned the back of her head against his shoulder when his arms wrapped around her and he pressed his cheek to her forehead.

She knew he would have been thinking about it all night anyway and in between short moments of sleep so would she. They couldn't help Stefan right now, but the thought of being safely tucked in a cozy room while he was almost certainly trapped somewhere down there under the water caught into a never ending drowning cycle was almost physically painful. At least here they could feel closer to him, feel that they were with him.

They were sitting in silence, listening to the wind and the weak sounds of the still water below.

"He'd be happy you're here," Damon broke the silence after a longer while and Elena tilted her head upward a little to look at him, that faintest hint of wariness in his voice making her frown.

"He'd be happy _you_ are here," she said, raising her hand and cupping the side of his face in her hand. He looked down on her, eyes glimmering in the darkness.

"I'm here for you," she said softly, leaning closer and brushing her lips against his.

He looked at her thoughtfully for a second. When he spoke his voice was barely audible. "I wasn't thinking about Stefan," he admitted in a hollow tone. "I mean... it sucks he's down there, but he's been through worse and we'll get him out." His forehead fell against hers. "I was thinking about you."

She smiled. "Damon-"

"You need to leave."

Elena froze. "What?" She asked breathlessly, blinking.

"We need to hide you somewhere."

"No. Damon-"

"It's only a week, Elena. Only a week until we bring Bonnie back."

"I'm not going anywhere," she whispered earnestly, her lips inches from his.

"Don't make me regret that I told you," Damon said warningly.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I should snap your neck and Fedex you to another galaxy instead of discussing this with you."

Elena widened her eyes at him in half-hearted indignation. He looked at her almost angrily, roughly ran his hands up the sides of her face, his fingers getting tangled in her hair. He kissed her slowly, ravenously. Unhesitatingly, she clung to him, nails digging into the fabric of his jacket.

"Damon..." She breathed, reluctantly breaking the kiss and looking him deeply in the eyes. "This is not a solution and you know it. The moment he realizes that I'm gone he'll threaten to kill someone close to us and he won't hesitate to do it. It's not worth the risk. We _will_ bring Bonnie back and then his stupid ritual won't happen anyway."

Damon looked at her, but remained infuriatingly quiet, just twirling her hair around his fingers.

"I'm not going anywhere," Elena said determinedly, changing the tone of voice from pleading to defiant.

No answer.

"I don't think I can last a week without you," she whispered, trying yet another approach and she was sure that, her poor attempts at emotional manipulation aside, he could see in her eyes that she had really meant it.

Almost involuntarily, Damon's mouth twitched into a faint, lop-sided smile. "Without me or without hot vampire sex?"

Elena suppressed a chuckle and pressed her cheek to his. "I didn't know that those were two separate things," she said teasingly and smiled when she felt him smile a little.

He sighed, dropping the subject although she could tell from the way his forehead was still creased that he didn't drop it for good.

"We should've brought the cards," Elena said quietly, hoping to make the frown go away – and it did a mere moment later.

"_It's a strip poker, isn't it?" Elena asked suspiciously, watching Damon shuffle the cards. She could see him smirk, his face illuminated by the bonfire set between where they were sitting on the ground and their tent._

"_Strip poker? In such chilly weather?" Damon pretended to shudder._

_Elena narrowed her eyes at him. "So what kind of poker is it? If we won't be using money."_

"_We'll be using these," Damon said, dropping a handful of coins onto the blanket between them._

_Elena ran her fingers through the pile, looking at the coins one by one. They were very simple, plastic and red. Each one had '50' written on both sides. "They stand for money?"_

_Damon shook his head, his eyes fixed on Elena, the smirk not leaving his face._

"As far as I remember you actually owe me three hundred because you fell asleep," Damon said matter-of-factly.

"I didn't fall asleep," Elena said, trying to keep amusement out of her voice. "I passed out! Four thousand kisses can do that to a person, even an undead one," she added in a low voice and after a moment of silence they both laughed briefly under their breath.

They pressed their cheeks closer together, their laughter turning into thoughtful smiles.

On this strangest watch they had ever been on, they stayed awake for the entire night staring into the dark water beneath them with arms wrapped securely around each other.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** I'm back! ;D But I slept only 3 hours last night, so I don't *feel* very much back just yet haha But I wanted to post this next chapter ASAP :) I'll try to keep updating frequently, however I may be slow with replying to your wonderful reviews - I'm just very busy with work right now & unfortunately it's going to be that way until Christmas *sigh*

**Beta:** **arabian** (aka **arabean**) – Thank you so so so so so so so much! :)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 8**

_She couldn't see her surroundings very clearly. There was fog all around them which made the room look unreal. Damon was cradling her face in his hands, his eyes boring into hers with genuine concern. His touch was alleviating that strange sense of anxiety she was feeling, but then his words fell over her like icy stones._

"_The truth is... I never loved you," Damon whispered so gently it somehow made the words hurt even worse._

_Elena felt frozen to the spot, unable to move, bewildered and cold. The fog dispersed but everything around them was still blurry and she couldn't focus on anything else but his shining eyes and his voice uttering the words that cut through her heart with merciless precision._

"_I love Katherine. It's always going to be Katherine."_

_She felt cold shivers run up her spine and suddenly the room began to spin. Everything went dark-_

She jolted awake.

"Elena?"

She opened her eyes and found herself in Damon's arms. The sky was pale, the morning sun rising on the horizon.

Bringing her hand to her face and grimacing at the memory, Elena buried her face in his shoulder.

"I had a... weird, bad dream," she said quietly, closing her eyes in relief at his touch, his arms around her.

He frowned. "What was it about?" he asked brushing his lips across her cheek.

Elena's eyes immediately drifted away.

"Ah, ah, ah. None of that." Damon pinned her to the ground, his hands holding her wrists on either side of her head, his face hovering right above hers. "Whatever happened to always saying everything," he said, still smiling a little, but studying her face in concern. "What was the nightmare about?"

Elena sighed, trying to snatch her hands free but to no avail. She gave Damon a grumpy look but he smirked down at her a little and just repeated the question. With a huff, Elena slightly narrowed her eyes at him and wanted to utter the words with condescension but somehow she failed, the trembling of her voice giving her away and turning Damon's lop-sided smile into a frown.

"In this dream..." She drew a breath. "You didn't love me... in this dream."

He looked at her in silence for a second before abruptly drawing them both to a sitting position, his hands cupping her face, their lips almost touching when he said in a low, firm voice, gently caressing her cheeks with his thumbs. "That's got to be the most unrealistic dream I've ever heard of."

xxxdelenaxxx

Holding her head high, Caroline marched inside the boarding house with a fierce look, almost stomping over Jeremy's feet in the process. She was upset and nervous- No, just upset. Or just nervous. She wished she could at least get that straight.

"Is everyone ready?" She asked, glancing around the parlor, but staying in the corridor.

Jeremy closed the door. "Actually... I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Caroline asked with a frown.

"Shane's here, but Elena and Damon went out in the middle of the night and didn't come back yet. They said they would."

"Shane's not going anyway." Caroline tossed her head backward with a stifled groan. "Klaus is going to be by the quarry in an hour!"

"That's plenty of time," Damon said, pushing the door open and walking in.

Caroline looked him up and down critically before shifting her gaze to Elena and widening her eyes at her. "Where have you been?"

"We'll just take a shower, get dressed and be right back," Elena said in a conciliatory tone, following Damon.

"How about you take your showers separately. Maybe then we'll make it on time," Caroline muttered under her breath, crossing her arms over her chest.

Elena stopped in her tracks and after a moment of consideration turned around. "Why is everyone always making comments like that? It's really annoying," she said with a brief, mirthless smile.

"Oh, I don't know," Caroline said with fake cluelessness and then added in a sharp, matter-of-fact tone. "Maybe because there isn't anyone left who hasn't walked in on the two of you making out."

"Do we really need to talk about this right now?" Jeremy cut in, hoping to resolve the tension but Elena's expression changed from mildly frustrated to upset.

"That's obviously not true, so I'm not sure what's the point of being so mean about this."

"Elena," Damon said barely above a whisper, taking her hand in his and trying to lead her up the stairs, but she resisted.

"Mean?" Caroline laughed dryly. "Seriously? And actually yes, if you ask me, it is kind of mean to dump Stefan just because he didn't want you to become a monster and relish in it. It's obviously easier to just shag someone who doesn't care if you eat half of the town for lunch. I'll be waiting in the car," Caroline said in one breath, turning on her heels and slamming the door shut behind her.

Elena stared at the door in utter stupefaction.

"I'll go get the crossbow and stuff... just in case," Jeremy said after a moment of perfect silence, disappearing into the hallway.

Elena turned around and looked at Damon who shrugged, putting on a nonchalant expression.

"Don't worry about that, Elena. It's OK."

Elena shook her head. "No, Damon, it's not OK. I'm not OK with anyone, especially my friends saying things like that. It was amusing, at first and in small doses, but now they seem to think it's hilarious to repeatedly insult you, me. Us."

"Elena," Damon slid his fingers into her hair, holding her face. "It doesn't matter what they think or say. Besides, she was right at least as far as me and your lunch options are concerned," he said with a wink.

Elena smiled briefly but then her face fell again. "No, actually, she wasn't, and that's the problem, Damon. They don't get it. They don't get that you'd be OK with that not because you think it's fun, but because you love me."

"It'd be a little fun," Damon said speculatively and Elena laughed quietly, sliding her hands around his neck and resting her chin on his shoulder as she hugged him.

Damon closed his eyes. "OK. So what? Why does it matter?" He muttered, wrapping his arms around her and pressing her as close to him as possible.

"Because it hurts me," Elena said quietly after a pause. "I know they won't love you like I do, but..." She lifted her chin from his shoulder and trailed soft kisses from the side of his face to his lips. He looked at her. "I want them to respect you like I do."

"_I never asked for your respect."_

"_Good for you, Damon, because all I have is disappointment."_

Damon's expression changed so rapidly and for a few moments he just stared at Elena with wide eyes and some kind of a grimace on his face, that she almost started wondering if she said something wrong.

"_You may be in love with Elena all you want if it means you're going to protect her, but I have the one thing that you never will."_

"What is it?" Elena asked under her breath, cradling his face in her hands.

He shook his head dismissively, but in the next moment his lips were everywhere on her face, her lips, her cheeks, her eyelids.

Stifling a chuckle, Elena whispered a reminder about meeting Klaus and only then they finally headed upstairs.

xxxdelenaxxx

"What are these for?" Caroline asked, looking into the trunk where Jeremy placed a stash of weapons.

"I don't know. Just in case," Jeremy said with a shrug.

"In case of what?" Caroline snapped. "Klaus can't be killed. Silas can't be killed. You can just as well sell these on e-bay."

Jeremy raised an eyebrow in cautious amusement, but Caroline seemed if not perfectly serious then definitely gloomy.

"You don't need to lash out at Elena just because the entire Klaus situation is stressing you out," Jeremy said, shutting the trunk close.

Caroline blinked. "And you're like what now, changing your career path from a vampire hunter to a vampire therapist?"

The door opened and Damon and Elena walked out of the house. Jeremy exchanged a long look with Caroline before he slid into the back. He slid across the seats and then reached out behind him, feeling something sticking out of the small gap between the seat and the back of it. He pulled out the piece of fabric and after a quick inspection he dropped the lingerie as if it was hot. Eyebrows furrowed, he glanced right and left on the backseat. With a stifled groan of disgust and a brief moment of consideration, he jumped out of the car.

"I'm gonna ride with Caroline," he told Elena after she gave him a questioning look.

"I think someone should stay to babysit Professor Creepy," Damon observed in a sing-song voice and Jeremy looked between him and Elena.

Sensing the lack of support, he simply rolled his eyes. "Fine."

xxxdelenaxxx

When they arrived at the quarry Klaus was already there, standing near the edge and looking down into the water, his hands clasped behind his back.

"I'm just curious, is this where you were planning on sinking that coffin you had put me in the other month?" He asked, gesturing to the quarry as he turned toward Damon, Elena and Caroline when they approached him.

"Could we cancel the group therapy today?" Damon asked with a small sigh.

Klaus squinted, his smile turning into a frown.

"Thank you for coming," Elena said quickly in a serious, steady voice, surreptitiously poking Damon.

The smile crept back on Klaus' face. "Well, I couldn't very well refuse such a tempting offer. Besides, who doesn't dream of rescuing their _friend_ from a predicament?"

Elena's forehead creased in grim acknowledgment. She doubted she would ever fully come to terms with the idea of Klaus being Stefan's _friend_ and, as he maintained, learning some _tricks_ from him.

"OK, so let's get to it," Caroline cut in, hoping to postpone a more detailed discussion for when Stefan was safe and sound.

There were so many loopholes in that deal they had struck with Klaus that she was sure at least a small-scale murderous spree would occur once Klaus realized he wasn't getting much out of this deal at all.

"And where would our dear Tyler be?" Klaus asked, faking concerned curiosity and glancing at Caroline.

She narrowed her eyes at him, "He didn't feel like hanging out with the guy who killed his mother," she said through her teeth, crossing her arms over her chest.

Klaus winced. "That was immature on my part, I admit," he offered noncommittally, walking off to sit down on a stone where he started taking off his shoes.

Caroline stood with her eyes fixed on him. "What is wrong with me," she whispered to herself, gritting her teeth and flinching in surprise when Elena lightly squeezed her arm and gave her a small, comforting smile.

"I keep projecting myself on you, you know," Caroline said suddenly, wrinkling her nose in uncomfortable nervousness. She looked at Elena whose expression was oscillating between amusement and confusion. "You're my friend and I want to stop you from making my mistakes... except that... you're not making my mistakes, because you're not me," she said in one breath and sighed heavily. "And maybe you're not even making your own mistakes either."

"I'm not," Elena replied softly, waiting for Caroline to return her smile, but she looked too distressed to bring herself to it. "One of these days," Elena said after a pause, trying to think of something that could make Caroline laugh, "I'm inviting everyone to a lecture: Damon Salvatore, the hero."

This seemed to work. Caroline laughed briefly. "Oh please. Although my mom would probably be willing to help with the slide-show."

The conversation was cut short when a splash of water that suddenly raised a few feet above the surface preceded the appearance of Klaus and a large, black, steal safe.

Klaus dropped the safe to the ground and drew a breath, his voice free of any signs of exhaustion and only his eyes were shining with some effort. "For future reference, that's not the best hiding place. Rebekah could get this box out just as easily. But I imagine our lovely Elena would rather have you team up with me than my dear sister," he added with a smirk, shifting his eyes from Damon to Elena who ignored him, focusing on the safe instead.

"Would you mind?" Damon made a shooing motion and Klaus shot him a glare, but moved backwards. Caroline and Elena held their breaths, watching in silence as Damon pulled the safe's door open.

It did so with a screeching sound, water rushing out of it and a body tumbling to the ground.

Caroline gasped in relief and Elena fell to her knees next to Damon who was pulling Stefan to a sitting position. His skin looked very dry, his face a grayish shade of blue and he was unconscious. Caroline handed a bloodbag to Elena who pressed it to Stefan's lips. She tried to squeeze some of the blood into his mouth while Damon was holding his head tilted a little backwards. Klaus watched them all in silence with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Come on," Caroline whispered, covering her mouth with her hand in a nervous gesture, watching Stefan's motionless face that twitched when a drop of blood made its way past his lips.

Then all of a sudden he jolted upwards and started to cough, his eyes wide and unfocused. His wild, bewildered look beginning to fade into a more tranquil one only when his eyes met Caroline's bright gaze. She was grinning.

He looked right and left, his eyes wandering aimlessly everywhere as he was slowly regaining consciousness and beginning to understand what was happening.

They found him.

The blood was tasteless in his mouth, but the scent was unmistakable and his eyes drifted from Caroline's radiant face to the face closer to him.

Elena gave him a reassuring smile, motioning for him to continue drinking from the bloodbag and he drank absently, his eyes fixed on her face, following every line, tracing the contour of her lips, looking into her eyes and marveling at their heartwarming color, like dark firewood, like home. The wind lightly brushed her hair, tossing a strand against his hand when he lifted it to hold the bloodbag himself, or just to touch her hand that was touching it, he wasn't sure.

He didn't have enough strength to smile or speak, but his face was slowly regaining its color, revived by the blood, by the sight of her, by knowing that she was here, that she-

It was then that he shuddered as if struck by a wave of water as cold as this in what he had been drowning over and over again for the past... he couldn't even imagine how long it was.

His brother's face came into view as he was trying to help Stefan stand and he suddenly felt as if he flew across the space and even though he was still here, there was an infinite distance between them and in the next moment he felt thousands miles away from her, beautiful images suddenly overshadowed by the last memory that he had of her.

"_Honestly, Stefan, I just wanted to thank you."_

Damon and Elena exchanged a few words he wasn't able to hear. Something about helping him stand. It could be anything for all he cared. Stinging words of her ardent confession he had carelessly overheard... ages ago it seemed... were echoing dully in his head and for a second he just wanted to go back to sleep... to death... to whatever state could give him peace. It didn't matter what they were saying now. What mattered was that when they looked at each other there was that immediate connection there, wordless understanding, a flash so brief it could barely be noticed but it was there, like a signal from a lighthouse, the unmistakable light that seemed to pass between them. Almost accidentally, Stefan's eyes briefly met Caroline's worried gaze. He remembered her voice, the words that had shut the ajar door closed. _"They are together, aren't they?"_

For a moment he felt like he was drowning again. He closed his eyes and it was dark and cold. The memories pierced through him like needles and in a split second he seemed to recall all of the thoughts that had been running through his head when he had been trapped underwater. All the emotions.

And it caught him completely off guard that despite all of his other thoughts and feelings the emotion that suddenly prevailed over all the others he had struggled with - was fear. He remembered the fear, that fear – for them. It was overwhelming, cold and dark. Colder and darker than anything else.

Elena grabbed one of Stefan's arms, Damon grabbed the other, and with Caroline's help they tried to make him stand and even though he still couldn't hear what they were saying he looked up, looked between them and felt the unimaginable relief flood through him. He crashed back to the ground, bringing both Damon and Elena down with him. His arms flew around them and he whispered, his lips so weak he wasn't sure he was saying the words aloud.

"You're OK... You're OK..."

Startled at first, they let him hug them, their breaths catching in their throats when the words Stefan was muttering over and over again became clearer and they realized what he was saying while cradling them both to him.

Caroline stood nearby smiling and blinking back the tears.

"This is all very touching, but if you would kindly fulfill your part of our deal, I could be on my merry way back to New Orleans. I'm actually kind of busy right now," Klaus said having endured as much of the scene before him as he possibly could.

Stefan let go of Damon and Elena, Klaus' voice bringing him back to reality. He looked up, meeting Klaus' mildly ironic gaze.

"So if I could have my fresh supply of the doppelganger blood," Klaus said with a smile, extending his hand toward Elena.

Stefan blinked, his eyes widening in dismay. But when his eyes darted to Damon his incredulous suspicions were immediately brushed away.

"Yeah, about that," Damon said with a grimace, the tone of his voice and his expression causing all amusement vanish from Klaus' face. "Elena's still a vampire, so..." Damon said, narrowing his eyes in an artificially sympathetic smile.

Klaus just stared at him, fury radiating from his gaze almost tangible. "So you lied to me," he said in disbelief, sounding as if he was just hurt and disappointed, but the vengeful fury in his eyes suggested otherwise. "The deal was to enable me to make more hybrids and I kind of need a human doppelganger for that," he hissed through his teeth, on the verge of losing patience.

Caroline quickly jumped between Klaus and the group sitting on the ground.

"We didn't lie. We said you could have _a_ doppelganger. We didn't say which one," she said with a conciliatory smile. Klaus blinked in momentary confusion. "Elena didn't take the cure." Caroline continued in a serious voice. "Katherine did."

Stefan's eyes darted to Caroline, the news as shocking to him as they appeared to be to Klaus, whose initial astonishment quickly turned into a pleasantly surprised, predatory expression.

"You don't say," he said with a grin. "So it turns out it wasn't the eternity that Elena had a problem with. It was the company," he added as an afterthought, amused, glancing at Stefan who averted his eyes from him. "So... where is Katerina?" He asked calmly, giving Caroline a questioning look.

She opened her mouth to speak, but Damon cut her off, causing Klaus' eyes to shift back to him with even a greater than before amount of fury.

"Yeah, about that..."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Klaus asked darkly.

"It means that... we don't know... where she is," Caroline said bravely, taking a step back when Klaus took a step forward.

"She mentioned she wanted to visit Hawaii. You can start searching there," Damon offered helpfully and Elena widened her eyes at him, doubting it was a good idea to rile Klaus up even more.

Klaus looked at him with half-hooded eyes, his anger clearly about to explode. He took another step, but then Caroline, gathering all of her courage stopped him in his tracks, lightly placing her hands on his shoulders.

"How about you help us take Stefan home first?" She said with as much innocent sympathy as she could muster. "And after that we can try to brainstorm how to find Katherine."

Klaus looked at her in silence with an expression on his face that made her wonder if he was honestly considering if she had gone insane. Then his features hardened and he stepped closer, staring Caroline straight in the eye as she tried to will herself not to give in to fear and step back. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you all right now," he whispered menacingly through gritted teeth.

The silence that fell was almost immaculate.

And then Stefan cleared his throat, coughing on the remnants of water and blood. "Technically, we all _are_ already dead, you know."

Tilting his head to the side, Klaus shifted his eyes to him and then to Caroline who successfully stifled a laugh, but Klaus noticed it anyway. He looked between everyone with utter annoyance.

"Alright," he said at last, after a moment of consideration, forcing a mirthless smile on his face. "Very well. Let's take Stefan home. And then maybe I'll just take Elena hostage and have you go find Katherine. You can start in Hawaii," he said, looking at Damon. "Unless of course you're lying to begin with and you know exactly where she is, in which case if I were you," he shifted his gaze to Elena, "I'd be wondering why my boyfriend would be risking my life to protect his ex-girlfriend." And with that Klaus turned around and headed for his car.

Caroline thrust up her chin. "I've got this," she said with determination in her voice, glancing at Stefan, Damon and Elena before going after Klaus.

With everyone else gone, the awkward tension finally seemed to really set in.

The nightmare of the past... he didn't even know how many days... weeks... months... was slowly fading from Stefan's mind and he was feeling more and more like himself with every passing moment. Paradoxically, regaining consciousness wasn't making him feel much better, because with that came the rush of memories. His concern for his brother's and Elena's safety appeased, other emotions, hurt, disappointment, the hollow sense of loss began taking over.

"Come on," Damon said in a hushed voice, reaching out for Stefan's arm to help him stand. "Let get you home."

"Yeah?" Stefan's mouth twitched into a bitter smile.

Elena reached out to help as well, but he shifted away from both of them, staggering to his feet on his own.

"Where's that?" Stefan asked. He walked past them, his step unsteady as he slowly made his way toward where the cars were parked.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all the fantastic reviews! I'm so happy you didn't give up on the story because of the hiatus ;D

**Beta:** **arabian** (aka **arabean**) – Thank you SO MUCH! *hugs*

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 9**

Peeking into the parlor, Caroline told herself that if Stefan could handle Damon and Elena escorting him upstairs, she could handle talking to Klaus.

Jeremy and Shane were off to look through the grimoires and now Klaus was sitting alone near the fireplace, staring into the distance.

Drawing a breath, she marched into the room with all nonchalant confidence she could muster and took a place on the couch across from him. "So..."

"Well, if you intend to talk me out of kidnapping Elena, save your breath, love. It seems I can never make anyone in this town behave without resorting to gratuitous blackmailing, which is a shame, but what can I do?" Klaus said in a tone that seemed to indicate he was genuinely upset about it.

"If you really wanted to do that, you wouldn't be talking about it so much," Caroline tried a bolder approach, but Klaus didn't seem to care. She narrowed her eyes at him. "You weren't able to find Katherine for half a millennium. How do you expect Damon to ever find her?"

"She's human, so her options are a bit limited. She can't be that hard to find. Unless of course you're all lying about it too and she's not really human," he added with a warning glint in his eyes as he continued looking at Caroline, his gaze unblinking.

"She is human," Caroline confirmed with a huff, throwing herself against the back of the couch. "Why are you doing this?" She asked after a pause, looking away and then back at him with a grimace. "We're the closest to what might be considered your friends you've ever and will likely ever come across," she blurted out.

Klaus' face lit up in amusement. "Friends?" He shook his head, chuckling under his breath. "Are you perhaps referring to the fact that you're not trying to kill me anymore? In which case I must begrudgingly point out that the reason for that is most likely the petty little fact that if I die, then all of you die. Do you see my problem with attributing your peacemaking tendencies to having friendly feelings toward me?"

"Seriously?" Caroline laughed dryly, widening her eyes at him in annoyance. "That's not what I was saying. It's not possible to have any feelings- any positive feelings toward you anyway. Not any friendly positive feelings," she kept correcting herself unnecessarily, almost immediately scolding herself inwardly for her stupidity.

Klaus tilted his head to the side, arching an eyebrow. Caroline averted her eyes from him. He looked at her for a moment yet and then stood up and walked over to sit next to her on the other couch.

She shot him a stern look, her forehead wrinkling in irritation.

"I could compel you to go with me to New Orleans, you know," he said in a low voice.

Caroline turned more to the side to fully face him, her eyes boring into his challengingly. "So go ahead," she said with a hint of non-nonchalance in her tone. The shadow of a smirk remained on his face, disappearing only after she added. "Ruin the only real, positive thing in your thousand-year long non-existence."

They looked at each other in silence for a few seconds before Klaus averted his eyes, forcing the mildly sarcastic expression back on his face.

"My thousand-year long non-existence taught me that flitting and short-lasting real things are as worthless as fake ones," he said reflectively, glancing around the room.

"Is that a dare or a question?" Caroline asked, her voice clear and steady and she couldn't be more proud.

Klaus' eyes darted to her and she wasn't sure what it was that she saw there.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Get some rest and when you wake up, we'll tell you all about Silas, Bonnie, Jeremy and everything else," Elena said, trying to sound and act as normal as possible. She grabbed one of the pillows from Stefan's bed and started fluffing it.

"Just three for now," Damon said, putting the blood-bags on the nightstand. "And this, if you'll feel like giving yourself a headache," he added with a dim smile, showing off the bottle of bourbon to Stefan before placing it next to the blood-bags and a couple of glasses.

"I think we should open the window. It's awfully stuffy in here," Elena said, exchanging a look with Damon who nodded his approval of the idea. Elena walked up to draw apart the curtains, causing Stefan to squint a little when the sunlight flooded the room.

"I'll go get fresh towels-" Damon started, glancing toward the bathroom.

"I already did," Elena informed him, turning away from the window and absently adjusting a mirror on the wall.

"Oh. Good," Damon acknowledged matter-of-factly. They exchanged brief smiles.

They had been in his room for over ten minutes. Stefan had not uttered a word. He was sitting in a chair, staring at the floor, listening to the conversation that could be up for winning the concerned parents award and he was slowly losing patience.

He was beyond relieved they were alright. He was grateful they had got him out. But he felt that if they continued behaving in that manner for one more minute he would throw them out of the balcony.

"Could you..." Stefan started and trailed off. Damon and Elena's eyes flew to him expectantly and they waited for him to continue, for a few moments the only sound audible in the room being Stefan's fingers drumming against the side of his chair faster and faster. "Get the hell out of here... for some time?" he brought himself to finishing his sentence and looking up at them.

They looked at him somewhat uncertainly, stunned and not really surprised at the same time, worried, a little defiant, a little guilty, predominantly hesitant as to what they should say.

"Stefan-" Elena started, but he cut her off.

"No, Elena. I'm sorry. I appreciate... that you found me and all, but..." With an effort, Stefan stood up and ran his hand across his face. "Honestly, I... I just can't look at either of you right now," he said in a hollow voice, glancing fleetingly between them and then walking off to the other side of the room. He stopped near the window and stood there with his back to them, turning around only when he heard them leave the room and close the door without making a sound.

xxxdelenaxxx

"And that way we could get a few hours ahead of Silas," Jeremy concluded, afraid to smile just yet, but unable not to feel a little bit more hopeful.

"Yes, this would buy us more time, if we could arrange everything properly," Shane said with much less enthusiasm in his voice. Jeremy gave him a questioning look. "Bonnie died here, so the ritual has to be performed here. We can't travel anywhere else to do that. But," he continued before Jeremy's face fell at the seemingly insurmountable obstacle. "If we could establish a connection with someone in a different time zone, actually witnessing the fool moon, this could be enough."

Jeremy looked grim for a second, but then his expression lightened up. "Matt is in Europe right now. I'm sure he'll do what he can to help us."

Shane nodded. "Good. Let's talk to him and see."

"I'll call him right now," Jeremy said, jumping to his feet, sprinting out of the library and running to his room. He scanned the surroundings for his cell phone.

"_Jeremy."_

Jeremy spun around, his eyes widening, her name on his lips, but before he said it out loud, Bonnie hushed him by placing her finger across his lips. He gave her an expectant look, waiting for her to speak, his eyes wandering helplessly all over her face and she smiled at the light in his eyes that somehow always seemed brighter when he looked at her.

"I was thinking about... everything and I made up my mind," she said, her voice familiar and clear yet it sounded as if it was coming from far away. "I don't want to live thanks to expression or rely on expression to live, Jeremy," she said with a small grimace and Jeremy's face fell and he opened his mouth to protest but she silenced him again.

"But... I suppose I can still die again after I come back," she said with a weak smile and Jeremy blinked. "I think I can hold on long enough for us to figure out how to get rid of Silas and even if there is no other way... then I guess it is the more reason for me to come back, if coming back means that he won't be able to hurt anyone, at least as long as I'm alive," she said with a mirthless chuckle.

Jeremy could hardly keep himself from saying anything, his face beaming with relief. Bonnie's smile broadened at the joyful expression that appeared on his face.

"There is one thing I wanted to tell you," she continued, blinking back the tears that welled up in her eyes. Jeremy nodded, wordlessly prompting for her to continue. Even though no one else could hear her, Bonnie lowered her voice, tilting her face closer to Jeremy's as she whispered the words with a faint smile. "You don't need a full moon."

xxxdelenaxxx

"That went..." Damon narrowed his eyes in a brief grimace. "Not well," he said under his breath, closing the door behind Elena when they walked into their bedroom.

"Well, he's alive," Elena observed on a positive note, following Damon's suit when he sat on the edge of the bed. "And he..." She breathed in and then breathed out. "Hates us," she added dejectedly.

"Yeah," Damon agreed, his eyes fixed on an invisible point in space.

Elena sighed. "Yeah."

The sound of an incoming text message broke the silence and Damon reached for his phone, frowning at the name that appeared on the screen.

Elena's eyes quickly flickered between his face and the phone and then without thinking she snatched the phone from his hand.

Damon raised his eyebrows in mild surprise that quickly turned into complacent amusement when he saw how visibly upset Elena looked while reading a short message from Katherine that was merely a warning that Stefan was not Stefan and that she skipped town.

"We could ask Sheriff Forbes to use this to track her," Damon suggested, taking the phone out of Elena's hand and putting it away.

"Why are you saying this as if you wanted me to say no?" Elena asked, looking up at him.

"I don't _want_ you to say no. I _know_ you will say no." Damon leaned toward her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "But I like this jealous wife act," he whispered with a lop-sided smile. "Completely ridiculous but you're doing a good job with the annoyed look. It's hot."

Elena tried to bite back a smile but ended up laughing instead.

He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. They fell onto the bed, tangled in an embrace, his hands skimming up and down the sides of her body, his lips wandering all over her face, her throat, her collarbones.

She looked at him when he tore his lips away from her neck and looked at her. The world was gone. There was only them, suspended above the reality, beyond everything that was happening around them. She used to think it was difficult to describe love. Now she thought it was easy. Love was this look in his eyes every time he smiled as if it was her eyes that made him smile.

Damon gathered Elena in his arms, pulling them to a sitting position. She leaned into his touch when he cupped her cheek with his hand, silent understanding passing between them before his lips returned to her neck, this time not only plastering heated kisses on her skin, but nibbling for a moment before she shuddered, his fangs piercing through her skin, the momentary pain turning into pleasure, flooding her senses.

His arm around her kept her steady and she held onto him, sliding her open palms underneath the back of his shirt, clawing into his skin. Elena thought she would never be able to open her eyes again. Her eyelids felt so heavy and it seemed so strange to feel so peaceful while shivers like thousands of flames were racing across her skin.

Damon whispered her name into her ear and she struggled to look at him, her eyes meeting his dark, mesmerizing gaze and she couldn't look away, subconsciously leaning forward, pressing her lips against his stained with her blood. They kissed hungrily, unwilling to part until they had to look at each other again. His touch was greedy, impatient, his lips pressing sloppy kisses to her cheek when she fell into his arms, brushing her lips across his neck only once before sinking her fangs in his flesh.

When he had suggested for her to drink from him that first time she had vaguely understood that it wasn't entirely innocent, but she had been desperate enough – and she had trusted him enough – to do it. But he couldn't help but wonder if she would've agreed to that had she understood completely what it had meant, how it had made him feel. He had brought that up during one of their summer trips. They had been sitting on the water edge, feet buried in sand. He had expected a minor rant, but she had held her hand out to him instead.

Damon closed his eyes, weaving his fingers through Elena's hair, subconsciously pushing her teeth deeper into the wound, feeling her draw more blood and then retract her fangs.

There was fire in their veins, their heartbeats reverberating loudly in their ears. He held her in his arms closer and closer, almost crashing her against him and she couldn't bite back a moan when upon releasing his skin she found herself dragged into a bruising kiss, his lips tormenting hers relentlessly, the heady combination of feeling drained after being drunk from and rejuvenated after drinking made her pliable in his arms, love and excitement overtaking any rational thought.

Holding onto each other they fell across the bed, gasping for breath.

xxxdelenaxxx

Stefan was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and then closing his eyes and trying to fall asleep, but to no avail.

A quiet knock on the door made him turn his head and look at it for a second. He sat up and slid to the edge of the bed. After another knock he called out that it was OK to come in.

Caroline peered inside. "How are you feeling?" She asked with a half-grimace, half-smile, stepping into Stefan's room and regarding him with concern. "It must have been awful," she said quietly, walking up to him and slumping into a chair near the bed.

"I'm... beginning to forget all about it already," Stefan said in a flatly reassuring voice, a weak smile touching the corners of his mouth.

"Good," Caroline said, straightening up and for a moment just looking at him, as if hesitating if she should say what she wanted to say. But diplomacy was never her strength. "I know you're hurt and not over everything that happened, but... Silas told Damon we shouldn't be getting you out yet, so we kind of scored some minus points with him by doing it and there is no telling what he does once he finds out. And we only have a couple of days until that freaky ritual he wants to perform, so we kind of have to stick together and come up with a couple of plan Bs really soon." Caroline said in one breath, her tone earnest and slightly apologetic. "So," she continued in a softer tone, wincing a little, "if you don't mind putting off the teen drama. I'm putting off mine," she added encouragingly. "What with Tyler dumping me and all," she explained with a forced half-smile.

She looked at Stefan, waiting for him to reply, but instead Klaus' voice resounded in the room and her eyes flew to him.

"And here I was always being accused of ruining your lives," Klaus said with a small pout standing in the doorway and glancing around Stefan's room. "But it seems to me your lives started falling apart the moment I left." He snickered, looking between Caroline and Stefan.

Caroline smiled thinly. "It may come as a shock, but some things have nothing to do with you," she snapped, standing up.

"True," Klaus allowed, looking at them with an amused glint in his eye. "For instance, I have nothing to do with Damon and Elena indulging in a blood-sharing session while I was told we were all supposed to be having a very important meeting downstairs," he said with an innocent shrug.

Caroline's eyes widened and she shot him a glare before stealing a worried glance at Stefan, his face frozen in a non-expressive grimace. Narrowing her eyes at Klaus, Caroline made sure to intensify her glare as she walked right past him, storming out of the room.

Klaus looked after her with a bemused expression and then turned toward Stefan again. "You're welcome."

Stefan chuckled mirthlessly. "Yeah, I'll add this to the ever-growing list of things I should be grateful to you for. Might already be enough for a book."

Klaus gave him a gleeful smile. "Why so grumpy, Stefan? You're undead, handsome, rich and single. It could've been worse."

"I see at least you're in a jolly mood." Stefan said, rising to his feet. "Good for you," he gave him a sour smile.

Klaus made an offended face. "Just on the contrary. As you may recall, I was always very appreciative of your great love for Elena. Personally, I think it's very nit-picky of her to call it quits just because you let her drown. I mean, to err is human... which may not be the most relevant quote, but I'm sure you get the idea," he said with a smirk threatening to turn into a grin, his eyes twinkling.

Stefan slowly made his way to the door, raising his eyebrows when Klaus was still standing in the way. With another smile, he moved to the side, gesturing for Stefan to walk past him.

"Either I haven't been gone for all that long or some things will never change," Stefan said, glancing between the door and him. "I see pouring salt in open wounds is still your only joy in life." He held Klaus' gaze for a moment before walking out of the room.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Seriously?!"

Caroline threw her hands in the air, shifting her eyes between Elena and Damon who looked rather intimidated, which under any other circumstances Caroline would find hilarious. They were sitting on the edge of the bed with sex hair and blood smeared around their mouths and across their necks. It was a saving grace they weren't naked.

"You didn't knock," Damon pointed out, wrinkling his nose.

"Oh, I'm sorry I expected you to re-consider jumping each other's bones with Stefan two rooms away, Shane and Jeremy downstairs and Klaus strolling around the house!"

"I hope he changed into slippers," Damon said and Elena chuckled under her breath.

Caroline crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I hope you'll still be in such great moods when Silas blows up a farm with us in it!" she said sharply, turning on her heels and heading out of the room. "And by the way," she swirled around, "that's called stress eating- drinking- whatever," she said impatiently, before slamming the door shut.

"I'd better go freshen up," Elena said, smothering a smile and heading into the bathroom.

Damon smiled and was about to follow her, when his phone alerted him about another incoming text message. _From: Jeremy_. He blinked and held his breath.

_Bonnie said we don't need a full moon. Shane?_

xxxdelenaxxx

"Alright," Klaus said with a speculative hint in his voice, speaking up as soon as Shane finished explaining how they were going to go about the ritual. "I suppose I can resign myself to accepting Bonnie's help once we revive her in exchange for my invaluable assistance in restoring Stefan back into the vicious triangle. But," he continued before anyone could interrupt him, "if you want a back-up plan and therefore still expect me to find a witch who practices expression then I still expect you to provide me with Katarina's whereabouts within, let's say, the next three months."

"Are you serious?!" Caroline almost shouted, her forehead wrinkling in irritation.

"Six months?" Klaus offered generously.

"We don't even know if all of this is going to work! We have to coordinate a ritual with celestial events happening overseas. A two thousand-year-old Mystic Falls' answer to Voldemort is roaming around our town, plotting God knows what and likely planning on killing us all. Shane just explained all of that to you and your only reaction to it is tweaking your stupid deal to fit your stupid needs even better?"

Klaus listened to Caroline's rant with a smile ghosting across his face. He waited a heartbeat after she had finished and then said:

"Twelve months. But that's my final offer."

"Your offer?" Caroline was fuming. "Defeating Silas is in _your_ best interest."

"In my best interest?" Klaus widened his eyes at her with an innocent expression.

"He's more powerful than you."

Klaus didn't counter the statement, but did look slightly offended. "I don't see how I should worry about it just yet. None of it will matter if you bring Bonnie back. If you fail, we may renegotiate our agreement. Now, if you don't mind," he said rising to his feet, "I have an urgent meeting to attend."

xxxdelenaxxx

Klaus narrowed his eyes at the sight of lights shining in all of the windows, his house looking so bright under the evening sky that it almost hurt to look at it.

He rolled his eyes and walked into the house, not really surprised to find the door open. "You know, Elijah, me being half an hour late doesn't really justify your apparent wish to drive me to bankruptcy at the sole basis of electricity bills," He called in a loud voice, glancing into the parlor before heading to the dining room.

He noticed a silhouette sitting behind the table.

"Besides I'm sure you'll understand why I left New Orleans without telling you and you'll probably be even quite happy to discover that-"

Klaus stopped abruptly in the mid-sentence, finding the person behind the table not to be the person who he had expected.

Caroline had told him about Silas claiming Stefan's to be his real face, although it was only now that he found it genuinely eerie. Except for the color of their hair, Katherine and Elena looked exactly like Tatia, but for some reason he found their resemblance either aggravating or painful to contemplate. _This_ however, was simply eerie and oddly unpleasant to see.

"This is a beautiful house," Silas said, glancing around the room appreciatively. "I like what you did with the fireplaces and the tapestries upstairs, very elegant. Is it on sale? You must not have much use for it now that you have moved to New Orleans."

"I was actually planning on giving it to my sister as a peace offering," Klaus said conversationally, strolling toward the table and only then noticing an oddly looking bottle of wine standing in the middle of it.

His eyes drifted from the bottle to Silas who smiled thinly. "We didn't get off to the best start, so I came with a peace offering of my own." Klaus narrowed his eyes at him, both curious but at the same time not really looking forward to what was coming, but regardless of that, Silas next words easily captured his attention. Slowly pushing the bottle across the table, Silas said. "A bottle of doppelganger blood."

"_People who do terrible things are just terrible people."_

Klaus' eyes darted to the bottle and he wasn't quite sure where the sinking feeling came from when Silas added:

"I have more of these. It's amazing how much blood one body contains and how little time it takes to drain it all. Please, take a seat." He extended his hand in an inviting gesture. "I have a small favor to ask of you."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all the amazing reviews! :]

**Beta:** **arabian** (aka **arabean**) – Thank you so much! :)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 10**

Stefan couldn't sleep. Not only did it remind him about the quarry, but it also threatened to plague his mind with unpleasant dreams. Or pleasant dreams, which would actually be even worse.

Not for the first time he found himself wishing that Rebekah had really erased his memories. He wished all the pain would just disappear, especially now that there was nothing that could be done about it. Elena was simply gone. There was nothing to deal with. There were no things to work out, nothing to fix, nothing to restore.

"_Why are you trying to save him?"_

He used to think it was all his fault, leaving town with Klaus, the mistakes he had made when he had come back. That, paired with Damon's incessant presence was bound to cause damage. But the more he thought about it, the more he began to wonder when it had really started. What had happened on that road trip Damon had somehow talked Elena into after she had found Katherine's portrait? What had happened while he was gone? What had happened in Denver? A part of him didn't want to know, but another part couldn't help but wonder.

Not that any of it mattered anymore.

With a sigh of exasperation Stefan got off the bed and made his way downstairs to fetch something to drink. The bottle that Damon had put on the table was still standing there untouched. Somehow he couldn't bring himself to drinking from it, feeling a pang of abstract disgust every time he looked at it. The light of the fireplace caught his attention when he was about to turn into the corridor leading to the basement and with a wary frown he slowly walked into the parlor.

"Is there any specific reason why you're drinking my alcohol in my living room in the middle of the night?" Stefan asked in slightly impatient bafflement, looking at Klaus, who was half-lying on the couch with his feet on the coffee table and a drink in his hand.

The clock struck one.

"I really don't think I'm bothering you, so why don't you go back to sleep or whatever it was that you were doing and stop bothering me," Klaus snapped in a low voice, his tone annoyed even if his expression was just dark and gloomy.

Stefan blinked, not really sure what to make out of it. He didn't move.

Klaus rolled his eyes. "I needed a place to be alone with my thoughts and my brother – you know, the only one you and your friends didn't kill – is in our house, so." He took a sip of his drink.

"So you're hiding here from Elijah?" Stefan asked, mildly amused.

"Don't you have a better place to be right now?" Klaus asked, looking up at him. "Oh, that's right," he said bitingly with a feigned grimace. "Elena's in Damon's room, so you don't."

A glimpse of pain flashed in Stefan's eyes and with a brief, narrow-eyed look he turned away.

"I'm having a bad night," Klaus muttered and Stefan turned around.

"I'm having a bad century."

Klaus tilted his head to the side. "Come on, Stefan. It hasn't been _that_ bad, has it?" He asked without looking at him.

Not really knowing why, Stefan slumped onto a couch across from Klaus. "If I could make that choice again, I wouldn't have completed the transition, let's put it that way."

Klaus looked at him for a moment, before moving his gaze to an invisible point in space. "You know what I would do?" he whispered wistfully. "I..." he took a gulp from the glass and seemed to contemplate something for a second before adding with a thin smile that Stefan couldn't quite interpret. "I would've been bad with purpose."

xxxdelenaxxx

A noise woke Liz up in the middle of the night and she sat up in bed, glancing around the room in drowsy confusion, before she heard the noise again, along with Caroline's stifled voice.

Sliding her feet into the slippers, Liz went out of her bedroom and made her way to the kitchen, slightly widening her eyes at the sight of Caroline standing over the sink filled with half-full blood bags.

"Caroline, what's going on?"

Caroline dropped another blood bag, covering her face as she sputtered out some blood into the sink.

"Something is wrong with me, mom," she said brokenly, coughing.

Liz' eyes wandered around Caroline's face in dismay. "What's wrong, Caroline? What's going on?" She asked, brushing Caroline's hair off her face and wiping her mouth with a towel.

"I can't drink blood anymore," Caroline said with a grimace, her eyes filled with tears. "I can't swallow any of it and I don't know why."

Liz grasped her shoulders and pushed her lightly toward a chair where she sat Caroline down. "Caroline, calm down," she said, holding her gaze. "There must be some explanation for that. It doesn't need to mean anything, does it? Do vampires... I don't know, get sick?" Liz asked with a weak smile, pulling a chair for herself and sitting across from Caroline.

"No, they don't," Caroline said, wiping off her tears with the back of her hand.

"When was the last time you drank blood? Do you need to wait a certain amount of time between-"

"No, no, no." Caroline shook her head but the memory of when she had drunk blood last automatically popped into her head. She blinked. "It was on my way back to Mystic Falls," she whispered, absently glancing around the room.

"Caroline?" Liz looked at her worriedly.

"Before Stefan- Before Silas broke my neck," Caroline said, her dismayed gaze meeting Liz' equally anxious one. "I couldn't understand why, it seemed completely pointless but... he must have done something to me. He must have done something to me, mom," she repeated, throwing herself into her mother's arms that immediately closed around her.

xxxdelenaxxx

_The room was disturbingly bright and quiet. Elena glanced around it frantically, her heartbeat slowing down only when she saw Damon sleeping peacefully by her side._

_She closed her eyes, waiting for her breathing to calm down a little bit more and then she leaned over and placed a soft kiss on Damon's lips._

_His eyes fluttered open and he looked at her. Elena smiled, but instead of smiling back Damon abruptly sat up in bed giving her an incredulous, almost angry look._

"_What are you doing here?" He grabbed a clock from the night table. "Six a.m. Seriously? You have nothing better to do at six a.m.?" He asked in drowsy annoyance._

_Elena's eyes widened in bewilderment and chilling dismay at the odd familiarity and complete strangeness of the scene. She blinked, feeling irrational tears well up in her eyes._

_She breathed in – and couldn't breathe out, beginning to choke from the lack of air and then suddenly everything went white._

She started awake with a gasp.

The room was dark, the rain outside drumming noisily against the windows. Damon was asleep by her side.

She leaned over him and just looked at him for a few moments before slowly skimming her fingers across his cheek. She considered going back to sleep, but the dull pain caused by the dream was still pulsating in her brows and she neither believed she would fall asleep again nor did she even want to.

"Damon," she whispered, kissing his shoulder. "Damon."

She shook him lightly and then a little more forcefully, smiling faintly at her own behavior and at the fact that he wouldn't mind even if she was waking him up just to ask him if he remembered where she had put her sunglasses – like she had done during one of their summer excursions. Although usually she was waking him up for more important reasons.

Damon opened his eyes and said her name, turning fully toward her with a smile that was quickly turning from drowsy to cocky.

"I had a bad dream," Elena said quietly.

The smile turned into a frown and he pulled her into his arms. "The same one again?" He asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. He brushed his thumb across her lips, propped her chin with his hand and kissed her softly on the mouth.

"Yes... No... Not really." Elena grimaced, grazing his ankle with her foot before hooking her leg over his. "It was different, but the tone was the same."

Damon dragged his open palm across her neck, over her shoulder, down her arm. Her eyes involuntarily fluttered closed for a second.

"I love you," he whispered with his mouth inches away from hers.

"I know," she said, opening her eyes. "I know this more than anything in the world," she added with a small smile, running her fingers through his hair when he kissed her. "I don't know why I'm having these dreams," she leaned her cheek against his chest. "Do you think it has something to do with Silas?" She asked, struck by the thought.

Damon frowned, both at the suggestion and at the grim, troubled look at Elena's face. "It would be rather gratuitous, but who knows."

Elena reached out, attempting to smooth out the creases on his forehead with her fingertips. He caught her hand, brushed his lips across her knuckles and she smiled, but her smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

A thunder growled outside and Damon's gaze darted briefly to the windows when a gust of wind tossed torrents of rain against them.

He then looked back at Elena and after a moment of consideration scooted off the bed, grabbed Elena's hand and to her confusion pulled her with him across the room.

She was about to ask what he was doing, but when he opened the terrace door, the warm, rain-scented summer air hit her taking her breath away.

They were soaked to the skin as soon as they stepped outside, Elena's satin slip clinging to her body, her damp hair framing her face.

Damon's hand slid down from the top of her head to her bare shoulder. "I don't want you to be afraid," he said with his lips almost touching hers, his blue eyes bright in the moonlight. "Don't be afraid."

She hadn't allowed herself to contemplate this before, but now she suddenly realized that it was true, that she was feeling afraid even if she was refusing to put it into words. After three months of feeling abstractly invincible, she had spent the last couple of days fighting the equally abstract sense of fear.

He pressed his lips to the corner of her mouth. "No fear is stronger than you," he whispered. "No fear is stronger than my love for you. You're safe."

Elena's hands flew to his shoulders when their lips met in a fervent kiss, Damon's hands were slick with rain when they roamed over her body, crashing her against him.

She tasted rain on his skin when her lips strayed from his mouth to the side of his face. His fingers tangled in her hair when he swirled them around, trailing open-mouthed kisses across her neck. When their lips met again, she felt herself collide with the wall, his hand on her back preventing her from roughly hitting the hard surface.

He lightly caressed her face with his fingertips, rain dripping from his cheeks, her eyelashes, his eyes the darkest shade of teal. Smiling against his lips, she clutched his shoulders when he grasped her hips, slowly lifting her legs off the ground, his eyes never leaving hers.

They were whispering words rendered soundless by the rain, the wind tugging on their hair, raindrops lingering on their skin. She could hear his heartbeat in her ears when he kissed her, a never-ending kiss that gave her strength even as it seemed to be taking all her strength away.

She was holding onto him, cradling him to her with shaking hands, his face buried in her hair, his uneven breathing hot against her neck. The rain was hurriedly falling down, every drop crashing to the ground with unyielding impatience but they seemed to move so effortlessly against this hasty current, slower and slower, defying the outside world with infinite tenderness. The rain-drenched air trembled around them and they kissed, drowning a myriad of violent storms between their lips.

xxxdelenaxxx

Klaus was lying on the couch, looking at the ceiling with half-hooded eyes, straining his ears to make sense of the strange buzzing noise in his head. Was it how being drunk felt like? He wasn't sure. A thousand years – and he had never gotten properly drunk before. He found that somewhat amusing... very amusing... decidedly more amusing than he would've found it if he was sober, he thought tiredly, quite sure he was smiling even though he had minus zero reasons to smile. Minus zero. He smiled again, but then winced when a very loud sound of unknown origin reverberated through his head like a cavalcade.

He lifted his head, trying to decide if the sound was real and soon had his answer when the loud knocking drew his attention to the front door.

He sat up on the couch and looked around, confused by Stefan's absence. He was quite sure they had talked?... And he couldn't remember at what point the conversation had ended apparently leaving him to drink alone.

He rose to his feet doubting that walking was a good idea right now, but the knocking wouldn't cease to annoy him and no one else seemed to care to make it stop.

_Oh yes_, he suddenly remembered the end of his conversation with Stefan as he slowly made his way to the door. Perhaps telling Stefan how Elena had come to him _begging_ for help when Kol had kidnapped Damon wasn't the best idea, but the point he was trying to make was innocent enough – he could've tested the limits to which she would've gone to in her desperation and he hadn't. Clearly, he wasn't as bad as Stefan believed him to be.

Stumbling slightly, or rather taking a longer road and not the shortcut toward it, Klaus slowly made his way toward the front door and pulled it open.

He found it rather peculiar that the sight he was confronted with made him instantly almost completely sober.

"What are you doing here?" Caroline looked him up and down, her red-rimmed eyes full of suspicion.

"Have you been crying?" Klaus blurted out the actual first question that came to his mind and it was then and there that he decided he would never get drunk again.

Caroline ignored the question, storming inside, making to walk past him, but to her (and his) surprise Klaus locked her wrist in a death grip and repeated the question while raising his hand and moving a few rain-soaked locks of Caroline's hair over her shoulder.

"What are you... drunk?" Caroline asked, opting for indignation rather than panic-driven aggression, at least until he would force her to opt otherwise.

He seemed confused by her question and she took advantage of the momentarily harmless look on his face and moved a little closer to check the truth of her random statement and indeed the confirmation came in the form of strong scent of bourbon.

Only then she remembered that with her heightened vampire senses she didn't need to move closer to smell anything and her eyes widened in dismay when she suddenly realized that yes, she actually apparently did, because as soon as she stepped back she couldn't smell anything.

"Something is wrong with me," she said, her mind switching back to the actual reason for her coming to the boarding house in the middle of the night.

Klaus tilted his head to the side. "Yes, something is wrong with me too," he muttered and in a split second Caroline found herself pinned to the wall, his mouth inches from hers.

"What are you doing?!" She shrieked, her eyes wandering around his face in frantic confusion.

He rested his hands on either side of her face and it registered on the edge of her mind that she was free to at least try to push him away. He blinked repeatedly as if he was struggling with some thoughts weighing on his mind and then said in a fairly matter-of-fact tone:

"I _think_ I'm going to kiss you."

Caroline's eyes widened in alarm. "You can't!" She whispered immediately, for once grateful for her ability to speak faster than she could think.

"I can't?" Klaus looked genuinely perplexed and interested in the explanation and despite the grim mood she was in, she found herself stifling a chuckle.

"No, no you can't." She shook her head, keeping her tone serious. She placed her hands on his chest and lightly pushed him away which proved easy enough. "You are drunk and you need to... lay down... somewhere and I need to talk to Stefan."

Klaus seemed to ponder this for a moment. "I don't remember how I was when I was human," he whispered suddenly and she wasn't sure if she was more relieved or more anxious for him to seemingly pursue a different train of thought than she had expected. "I don't remember if I was brave... or if I was a coward... like my father said."

Caroline stared at him, afraid to even blink to break the weird spell of the moment she wasn't sure it even meant anything. All she knew was that he was talking and for some inexplicable reason she wanted to listen, even if it meant nothing. Or maybe because it could mean something.

"He wasn't your father," she said before she managed to stop herself and he seemed a bit startled, especially when she added, "He didn't act like one." She drew a breath. "It doesn't matter if you are a coward as long as you don't act as one. We all have our fears. But it's alright as long as they don't have us."

He looked at her in silence for a few moments, a deep frown creeping onto his face. "I don't have it in me to be better for no reason," he said under his breath with a hint of sincere regret in his voice, the faded light in his eyes making her think of the overcast sky. She stiffened when he looked at her, straight in the eye. "Give me a reason, Caroline."

She didn't know what he was talking about. She wasn't even sure if he was talking about something real or about some figment of his imagination.

Not really knowing what she was doing and why and if she was doing it for him or for herself or for the sake of some greater cause that perhaps could be seen behind it all, she mirrored the kiss he had given her on the day of the graduation, her lips lingering on his cheek for three endlessly short seconds.

She drew back, trying to find an excuse for what she had done, but there was none. She wasn't even drunk like he was. Which was probably all the more reason why she shouldn't have done what she had done.

She looked at him, almost afraid what she would see there, but instead of a half-expected smug expression she only saw a glimpse of astonishment, a hint of a smile – and immense depths of sadness.

"Caroline?"

They both shuddered at the interruption.

"Is... everything alright?" Stefan looked between them, not sure what to make of the scene in front of him. He remembered some disjointed comments here and there, but his understanding of it always was that there was some one-sided capricious attraction on Klaus' part that Caroline sometimes pretended to reciprocate.

"Yes," Caroline said hurriedly, for some reasons feeling more upset than embarrassed. "I mean no." She stepped outside of the circle of Klaus' arms. "I came here, because something is wrong. Ever since Silas broke my neck... That is I _think_ it's ever since he broke my neck, I can't drink blood from the blood bags."

Klaus' distracted gaze darted to her.

"What do you mean?" Stefan asked with a frown.

"I don't know," Caroline said with a helpless shrug. "It's like... like when Elena couldn't drink any other blood but straight for the vein."

"You didn't suddenly become sired to anyone, I suppose," Stefan said with a hint of something akin to irony and Caroline didn't like that his eyes flickered to Klaus, even if only for a second.

"Except that I couldn't even check if I can drink from the vein," Caroline continued, her face clouding over because of the troubling memory. "Because when I tried to compel someone on my way here... it didn't work. And I think I lost my heightened senses too," she added with a frustrated sigh.

Klaus tilted his head to the side and approached Caroline who shot him a wary glance, Stefan's presence somehow reminding her about all the reasons why her feelings were _all wrong_.

She almost gasped when Klaus cupped her face in his hands and she stared at him in disbelief wondering if he really was as drunk as to continue... whatever it was that they had been doing... in front of Stefan.

But when she looked into his eyes she noticed that he seemed disturbingly sober, looking at her searchingly and in such a scrutinizing way as if he was analyzing the color of her eyes.

Whatever he was doing it must have been making some sense to Stefan, because he didn't interfere.

After a few moments Klaus let go of her, his face unreadable.

"What is it?" Caroline asked impatiently. "Do you know what it is? Do you know what's wrong with me?"

"There is nothing wrong with you, love," Klaus said softly, yet his tone was far from comforting. "You're just not a vampire anymore."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all the great reviews! They really make my insanely busy days right now much much MUCH happier :]:]:]

**Beta:** **arabian** (aka **arabean**) – Thank you **_so much_**! *hugs*

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 11**

Having an emergency meeting called in the middle of the night was disturbing enough. But what was even more disturbing was the fact that Klaus had somehow managed to drink all the bourbon in the house within the span of a few hours.

"You've got to be kidding me," Damon muttered incredulously, shaking his head at the stash of empty bottles he had come across in the kitchen while fetching a blood bag for Caroline, because she insisted she _had to_ try one more time.

"What do you mean she's not a vampire anymore?" Elena asked, shifting her eyes between Caroline and Klaus, wrapping her long, purple sweater tighter around her.

Stefan couldn't help noticing her wet hair, the scent of rain and her skin combined almost unbearable when he concentrated on it. Elena glanced at Stefan, feeling his piercing gaze at her, but he looked away as soon as she looked at him.

"What is she?" Jeremy asked matter-of-factly, his eyes subconsciously drifting to Shane, as if expecting him to know the answer. Caroline shot Jeremy a mildly offended look.

"I don't think she's human," Shane said. "If Silas had the ability to make someone human, he would've made himself human and there would've been no point to the cure."

"Here you go," Damon said, handing Caroline the blood bag.

"Stop scaring me!" Caroline said slightly pursing her lips and leaning into Elena's embrace when she wrapped her arm around her. "If I'm not a vampire or a human or a werewolf or a hybrid then what the hell am I?!"

"A control freak _not_ on crack," Stefan said on an impulse and although everyone else seemed confused Caroline apparently understood the joke because she laughed, her face brightening for a couple of seconds.

Klaus shot Stefan a side-way glance.

Caroline opened the blood bag and cautiously put it to her mouth... but the smell barely reached her nostrils when she was already desperate to get rid of it.

"I can't."

Elena looked at her worriedly, taking the blood bag out of her hands and giving it back to Damon. Stefan's eyes absently drifted to their hands when they briefly touched and his eyebrows furrowed at the sight of matching golden bands on their fourth fingers.

"It's _disgusting_!" Caroline exclaimed dramatically, overcome with helpless anger and frustration.

Then suddenly the entire room brightened up and it took everyone a moment to realize what had just happened. The fireplace burst into flames with renewed fervor and several candelabras scattered around the room spontaneously lit up.

Everyone fell silent, including Caroline who felt cold shivers run up her spine.

Shane was the first to speak with an actual note of excitement in his voice: "I think we have our answer."

Caroline's eyes darted to him.

"You're a witch," Shane clarified to everyone's bewilderment. Klaus straightened up, his mouth twitching. "Silas must have turned you into a witch."

Damon and Elena exchanged a look.

"That is a very speedy diagnosis," Damon said, his tone skeptical.

"But isn't it the same thing like with being human?" Elena asked cautiously. "Witches are mortal. If Silas wanted to die-"

"Maybe she's an immortal witch," Shane said calmly, his seemingly impersonal scientific fascination with the entire idea freaking Caroline out even more.

"But why am I witch?!"

"Maybe Silas needs a witch for the ritual," Jeremy said, shifting his eyes to Damon. "You said he wants to bring someone from the dead. Maybe he needs a witch for that and he doesn't have one."

"I can't be a witch!" Caroline said, feeling completely ridiculous, vaguely recalling Bonnie saying the same thing once. "I'm not a witch! Doesn't one need to be born as a witch to be a witch? What does nature have to say about that? I'm a fake witch at best," she said in one breath, trailing off with a sigh.

"There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy," Shane said with a small smile.

Out of the corner of her eye Elena noticed Damon and Jeremy simultaneously become very still, their eyes meeting across the room.

"I'll go get one of the grimoires. I remember reading about something like that once," Shane said heading for the stairs.

As soon as he was gone out of sight, Jeremy took a hasty step forward, but Damon silently widened his eyes at him and made a barely perceptible shake of his head. Jeremy stopped in his tracks, not really arguing, but with a disconcerting look on his face. Elena shifted her eyes between them as surreptitiously as possible while Klaus and Stefan's attention was focused on Caroline.

"I'll make you tea," Elena said with a reassuring smile, squeezing Caroline's hand lightly as she rose to her feet.

Caroline looked at her, trying to smile back, but not really succeeding. "Thanks."

Klaus stood up and when Elena walked off toward the kitchen, he took her place next to Caroline on the couch.

Stefan glanced briefly at Elena grabbing Damon's hand on her way out and pulling him with her out of the room. He didn't know why he kept noticing all of these gestures. It was almost as if his subconscious was deliberately making him see things that guaranteed a pang of pain every time.

Then he noticed Jeremy spare a glance around the room before following Damon and Elena.

"If this is true, I don't think it's good in any way," Caroline said, trying to make sense of this bizarre turn of events. "I'm going to end up dead," she said, for the first time considering the possibility with some kind of dread. "_Dead_ dead." She thought she didn't realize how much she had gotten used to the idea of eternity until it threatened to be taken away from her.

"Caroline, you won't," Klaus said firmly.

Her eyes flew to him. "How do you know?"

"I won't let that happen," he said and she smiled weakly, finding the sentiment endearing even if she doubted he would like her reading of his words. Strangely, she had no doubt he had meant what he was saying, but at the same time she didn't believe he could actually manage that in all circumstances.

Not really enjoying the exchange, but simultaneously finding it a good opportunity to leave for a few moments, Stefan excused himself and went to the kitchen.

Out of the corner of his eye Klaus watched him go, straining his hearing to catch snippets of the conversation taking place nearby.

"Are you sure you're not being paranoid?" Elena was saying barely above a whisper, glancing between Damon and Jeremy, making as much noise with the tea cups as possible. "Quoting Shakespeare can hardly be a proof-"

"We believed what we wanted to believe, Elena. Because we needed his help. But the truth is, there is no logical explanation for him to be alive in the first place." Damon turned on the water and started filling the kettle with it.

Elena bit her lip, glancing at Jeremy who shrugged in agreement.

"What's going on?" Stefan asked with a frown, walking into the kitchen and causing everyone to jump a little.

"We can't all be in the kitchen!" Damon whispered through his teeth. "That's more than a little conspicuous."

"We can't just... not do anything," Jeremy whispered, grabbing a handful of spoons from a drawer.

"We're not going to talk about it right now," Damon said with unenthusiastic decisiveness, placing the cups on the tray and handing it to Stefan. "Water is ready," he said, glancing at Jeremy and gesturing to the kettle.

Almost subconsciously, Damon's hand closed around Elena's, their fingers intertwining as they headed out of the kitchen.

Shane was already back in the parlor sitting across from Caroline and Klaus with a grimoire in his lap.

"Maybe he needs to sacrifice a witch, that's why he turned, or whatever the term for that is, me into a witch," Caroline said dejectedly.

"Caroline," Elena slid down on the couch next to her. "Everything will be OK," she whispered reassuringly, not really knowing what was safe to say in Shane's presence anymore.

If he was Silas, they should keep everything secret for him, but he would notice that right away. It was terrifying to think what his plan might entail, considering the already complicated entanglement they were in.

They had to bring Bonnie back before the Silas' ritual, but if Silas was Shane, he knew about their plan to bring Bonnie back and he obviously wanted to thwart it. He had convinced them that they didn't need a witch for the ritual, which was most likely not true. Of course they were already prepared for that possibility anyway and Klaus promised that in two days a witch from New Orleans would arrive. Still, with Silas knowing all about that it didn't even make sense to try, unless they would set up the ritual and keep it a secret from Shane. That, however, was impossible, because of the full moon requirement. Although now that she thought about it... It was Shane who had insisted the full moon was indispensable and so that very well could not be true.

"I think we should get back to discussing this in the morning and now you should get some rest, Caroline," Klaus suddenly said, drawing everyone's attention to himself. "The witch from New Orleans should arrive in two days," he said observing Shane out of the corner of his eye. "Maybe she'll be able to help with this. Come on," he continued before anyone had the time to voice any objections. "I'll drive you home," he said, pulling Caroline to her feet with him.

She was going to argue that he was drunk and could cause an accident and yes, she knew he was immortal, but not all other drivers and pedestrians were, so he should perhaps take that into consideration if he was seriously trying to-

But then she stopped herself short in her inner banter rehearsal, because there was something urgent in his eyes and something unusual in the way his fingers closed around hers.

"Caroline can just stay here for the night," Elena said, but Caroline shook her head.

"I know, but... I think it's better if I go back. My mom will be worried. I know I can call her, but... with everything that's going on I don't really want to leave her alone for too long."

They said their good-byes and when Caroline left with Klaus, everyone headed to their rooms, except for Shane who decided to stay in the parlor, engrossed in the grimoire.

"I'd stay too, but I'm really tired," Jeremy said drowsily.

Shane gave him a small smile. "I'll tell you in the morning whatever I manage to find," he said, glancing at everyone.

Damon's mouth twitched into a humorless smile as he gladly left Shane downstairs and headed with Elena to their room.

"I really-" she started as soon as they closed the door, but stopped in mid-sentence when Damon grasped her shoulders, pinning her against the wall.

Elena arched an eyebrow, her eyes sparkling with faint amusement that turned into intent concentration when the look on his face remained serious.

Damon brushed her hair off the way, leaned closer and pressed his lips to her ear:

"I have to go somewhere with Jeremy. We'll be back as fast as possible, but until then it'd be best if no one knew we were gone," he whispered and then drew back a little to look at her.

She looked at him, her forehead wrinkled in anxiety, but she nodded firmly and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Where are you going?" She more breathed than whispered into his ear.

He cupped one side of her face in his hand, his mouth near the other side. "Elena, you need to be very careful. If Shane is-"

"I know."

He slid his fingers into her hair, kissed her on the mouth as thoroughly as it was possible in a hurry and then said in a rushed whisper with his lips once again pressed against her ear:

"We're going to get Bonnie."

xxxdelenaxxx

Caroline felt fairly ridiculous throughout the ride, but she felt most ridiculous when Klaus stopped the car in front of her house and turned off the engine.

Not only had he not kidnapped her but hadn't even teased to do so. In fact, he hadn't said _anything_ since they had got into the car.

"You drove me home," she said unnecessarily and looked at him.

He looked back at her. "I did."

A prolonged moment of silence followed, but then Caroline shook herself out of the reverie and was about to open the car door when his hand landed over hers stopping her movement.

Her eyes darted back to him. "What are you doing?" She asked, too quietly, not sure if this was the most relevant question, but at least it seemed like the most justified one.

The corners of his mouth twitched upwards for just a second. "Trying to be slightly less terrible."

Shifting in her seat, she slowly turned toward him, his hand still lying on top of hers. "What does that mean?" She asked seriously.

He averted his eyes from her with a conflicted look on his face and after another moment removed his hand. "Silas paid me a visit yesterday."

Caroline's eyes flew wide open. "Why? What did he want?"

"He doesn't want Bonnie to come back," Klaus answered and Caroline's face drained of all color.

"He knows about Bonnie?" She whispered in numb dismay, her lips barely moving.

"Well, that I suppose is not really surprising. I believe your friends already suspect Silas is taking intermittent breaks from parading around Mystic Falls wearing Stefan's face." Caroline looked confused. "He's probably controlling that witch-expert professor."

Caroline felt her heart sink as suddenly everything seemed even bleaker than a few minutes ago. "Oh my God," she gasped, tossing her head against the headrest. "But why did Silas come to you?" Caroline asked, abruptly turning toward Klaus again.

"He wants me to make sure that Bonnie stays dead," Klaus answered almost noncommittally and added, answering the 'how' question Caroline was about to ask, "If necessary, I can kill Jeremy or Damon or... everyone. Except for Elena, I'm graciously free to pick," he gave an absolutely horrified looking Caroline a brief smirk.

"You're not serious," she said automatically.

"Oh, I'm _dead_ serious, Caroline," Klaus said with a hint of annoyance in his voice, his expression turning grim. "And if I fail, he's going to kill my brother and sister and I suppose me as soon as he has no further use for Elena, so the bloodline is no longer an issue. In other words, to cut a long story short, he's going to exterminate the entire vampire race and live happily ever after as the only immortal creature along with his bonnie lass that he wants to bring back from the dead."

For a moment Caroline couldn't even form a coherent sentence. "Why are you telling me all this?" She suddenly asked, returning her frantic gaze to him.

He looked straight ahead into the dark night, the trees glistening with the remnants of rain that had stopped a couple of hours ago.

"It's been a thousand years and I believed I have tried everything this world has to offer, but I realized there was one thing I haven't tried yet," he said under his breath. He looked up at her with a humorless smile flashing in his eyes. "Doing the right thing. Of course," he continued before Caroline had a chance to react, "that's not exactly something that can be objectively assessed, but I decided that it would be safe to assume that whatever I knew _you_ would consider right _is_ the right thing to do."

With another brief smile, he got out of the car and walked around it to open the door for her. Caroline was sitting motionlessly, rendered rather speechless by the entire conversation and not really feeling like going anywhere right now, her mind spinning. The door opened and she forced herself to step outside, her eyes fixed on him when he closed the car door after her and just stood there looking at her.

"Do you know why he turned me into a witch?" Caroline asked, unable to comment on his latest statement and grasping at a safer subject matter.

Klaus shook his head. "No, I don't. But I'm guessing it might have something to do with you..." he trailed off and she wasn't sure why he hesitated before he finished his sentence, "killing twelve witches."

Caroline squeezed her eyes shut at the memory that was up there with the top three things she wanted to forget.

"You're right," she muttered gloomily. "That's probably it."

Klaus regarded her for a few moments in silence, as if considering something and then spoke again. "_Technically_, I can still do it," he said, immediately reclaiming her attention. "Prevent you from bringing Bonnie back, whatever it takes. Telling you about it doesn't really change anything."

Caroline looked at him, not quite sure why she wasn't more angry or terrified listening to him, but there was just something in his eyes that was telling her he wasn't being entirely serious.

"So what is needed to change that?" She asked, arching an eyebrow, scolding herself inwardly for playing along.

His lips twisted into a smirk as he slowly brought his face closer to hers.

She didn't flinch or step back. "You do know that's _technically_ blackmailing?" She asked in the steadiest and sharpest voice she could muster under the circumstances.

"I'm sorry, Caroline, but considering my track of sins blackmailing doesn't even rank," he whispered, the smile fading off his lips when they stopped a mere inch from hers.

Caroline searched her mind for an excuse, but came out blank. There was no excuse.

No excuse for her to just close her eyes and kiss the second greatest evil on earth on the mouth.

xxxdelenaxxx

The observatory was looming in the distance and they could see it long before they actually drove all the way to the top of the hill.

"Are you still feeling all confident about your feelings?" Damon mused, the ratio of humor to this being an actual question hard to discern from his tone.

"Of course," Jeremy answered seriously, too anxious about what was going to happen to focus on forming snappy retorts.

"Good."

They got out of the car and headed for the back entrance.

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed, staring at the clock and wondering how much time it would take for Damon and Jeremy... and hopefully Bonnie to come back. If everything would went according to plan, by morning Bonnie would be back and Silas would be a calcified statue again thanks to the restoration of the spell.

But she couldn't help worrying. Their successfully executed schemes record wasn't exactly reassuring and she also had a nagging feeling that Silas just might be one step ahead of them anyway.

She drew a shaky breath and looked at her phone again as if looking at it could make the text message she expected come faster.

Or at all.

It was quite likely he wouldn't write back and even if he did, why would he give it to her? Yes, he had offered it to her before, but the current situation was different. It didn't really concern him. While Silas was a threat to everyone, expecting Elijah to give something that valuable to her just so she could keep a person she loved safe was rather presumptuous.

With a sigh, Elena was about to put her phone away when it buzzed in her hand, startling her.

She held her breath and allowed herself to smile only when she read the message:

_Where would you like to meet?_


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** Thank you SO MUCH for all the amazing reviews! :):):)

**Beta:** **arabian** (aka **arabean**) = the BEST Beta ever! Thank you so much! :]

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 12**

Hoping to lower the chances of being seen to the minimum, Elena put on one of Damon's black jackets and noiselessly opened the terrace door. The rain had stopped but the air was still rich with the scent and she inhaled deeply enjoying the breeze on her face.

She had briefly considered telling Stefan she was going out, but then decided that risking being overheard by Shane was not worth it, not to mention that she didn't want to be asked any questions concerning her little quest. After all she would only be gone for a few minutes.

Stealthily jumping off the terrace, she glanced up at the dark windows, the dawn still a couple of hours away. She turned around-

"Hi there," Stefan said softly, but Elena froze, for a moment struck by the fear that it was someone else.

"Hi," she said cautiously. "What are you doing here?"

A weak smile flitted across Stefan's face. "I went for a walk. To the waterfall," he added not really knowing why and noticing that his words both seemed to resolve the tension and bring a new frown to Elena's face. "I know this probably won't help much if I say it, but... I'm not Silas," he said, wondering if he guessed the reason for her attitude right.

Elena ran her hand across her face and smiled a little. "I guess all I can do is believe you," she said, glancing sideways.

"Where are you going?" He asked, regarding her carefully. _"Something is different about you."_ For a split second he felt like he was talking to a stranger. He kept noticing something new in her every time now. The coherent, dependable image he had of her falling apart more and more ever since she had told him about that kiss.

"I just have to go do something. I'll be right back," Elena said in the most ordinary tone she could muster, making to walk past him.

"I will go with you," Stefan said, turning to follow.

"No, Stefan-" She bit her lip, slightly softening her tone. "I'll be fine. It's nothing, really. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Elena, I'm sorry, but somehow the idea of you sneaking out of the house all alone at 4am in middle of all of this, with Silas looking like me, possessing Shane, turning Caroline into a witch doesn't seem like the wisest one to me."

Briefly considering telling him whom she was meeting with while keeping the reason for the meeting to herself, Elena brushed off the idea and settled for a different approach instead.

"If you keep it up, I'm going to think you _are_ Silas, because Stefan would let me go if I wanted to," she said with a glimpse of warm humor in her eyes, but the effect seemed to have been the exact opposite to what she had expected and she scolded herself inwardly when she saw a flash of pain in his eyes. "Stefan-"

"I never meant for you to die, Elena," he said morosely. "I thought I'd come back for you in time," he said in an almost toneless, firm whisper.

"I know," Elena said quickly, pushing away a suddenly remembered thought which for some time had kept returning to her whenever she had looked at him; the only troubling one concerning what had happened, the only one making her feel guilty: that in some inexplicable, weird, numb way watching him swim away... had surprised her. "I know. I didn't mean to-"

"That was all I could think of at the bottom of that quarry," Stefan continued, weariness suddenly turning into some kind of desperation to talk to her, to make her stand near him and listen at least for a while longer. "That you had felt that pain- that you had drowned like that... that it was my fault."

"It wasn't your fault," Elena interrupted him. "I never thought about it that way and I never regretted my decision. It was my decision, not yours. You respected my choice and I appreciate that. How many times do I have to say that?" She gave him a weak but genuine smile. "I never felt anything but gratitude for you for it."

Stefan smiled bitterly. "Gratitude?" She grimaced, opening her mouth to reassure him, but he continued. "Maybe. Maybe you did. I know you think you did. But it was the beginning of an end, wasn't it? Because no matter how much it was your choice, no matter how much you don't regret it or never hated me for listening to you that one time when I shouldn't, the bottom line remains that I let you die," he said in a hollow voice. "And someone else maybe wouldn't," he added, looking at her as if expecting her to protest but she was just looking back at him in silence.

"I wanted to spare you the dark side of being a vampire," he continued after a pause, thinking that maybe it was his only chance to explain it all. "I didn't see a broken toy when I looked at you, Elena," he said, and Elena stiffened at the memory of Rebekah's cruel game that had made her tell Stefan things she would have worded much more gently if she hadn't been compelled to just tell the plain truth. "I just thought _you_ didn't want to be that way. Is it really such an achievement..." He drew a breath, jumping to another hurtful thought that occurred to him. "How hard it is to make someone feel 'free'?" He pronounced the word as if it was some kind of illness. "Accept everything, don't mind anything."

Elena shook her head, her impatience to get to her meeting with Elijah making her choose her words with less caution, which briefly made her wonder if her choice of words under Rebekah's compulsion was as forced as she had thought. "It's not like that, Stefan. Damon does make me feel that way, but that's not why I love him."

"_I'm not sorry that I'm in love with you. I love you, Damon. I love you-"_

Stefan's face tensed in a bitter grimace. In relation to _him _she seemed to always utter these words in such a bizarre, sanctimonious way. He was surprised by how much he couldn't stand it. "I know. I'm not blaming you for anything. I know it's my fault to begin with."

Elena frowned. "I think you're blaming yourself for something that isn't your 'fault,' Stefan. Something that isn't anyone's 'fault,' because it isn't a 'fault,'" she said in a low voice. "I didn't fall in love with him because you left with Klaus or because I died. I would've fallen in love with him no matter the circumstances. I would've fallen in love with him if my parents hadn't died, if he wasn't your brother, if we had met in 1864 or in 1912 or in 1977," she said earnestly, hoping that she was helping him, not hurting him. "I didn't fall in love with him because of you. I fell in love with him because of him."

She trailed off, almost out of breath, with tears in her eyes, wondering if the tortured look just appeared on his face or perhaps she allowed herself to notice it only now, otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to say it all. "I have to go," she added hurriedly and blurred into the forest.

xxxdelenaxxx

"That's not creepy," Damon said, feeling somewhat relieved at the sight of Bonnie looking merely asleep. He wasn't sure what to expect when Jeremy had told him he had kept Bonnie's body in the cave where she had died. He wanted to comment on the glass coffin, fancy that, but decided against it when he noticed Jeremy being sufficiently annoyed by his comment already.

They put the relevant grimoire and the equipment they had gotten from the observatory on the ground and began placing the candles around the cave.

"I couldn't just bury her," Jeremy said suddenly in a hushed voice, kneeling by one of the candles and staring absently into the flame.

Damon looked at him over his shoulder, his mouth twitching at a memory of his own. He turned away and was silent for a few moments. "I didn't want them to bury my mother."

Jeremy slowly turned around, the tone of Damon's voice reminding him of his own attempts at speaking about his parents' death as if it was actually possible to talk about it, as if it didn't make him feel like his heart was being torn to shreds every time.

"I didn't go to her funeral because my father locked me up in the cellar," Damon continued in an almost completely controlled, even tone of voice, although Jeremy wondered what would happen to it if he spoke louder. He unfurled the large map of the sky they had gotten from the observatory and Damon splayed it flatly on the ground. "He was afraid I'd make a scene."

Jeremy stood up and walked over to him, helping to place candles at the corners of the parchment. "How old were you?" He asked, trying to sound casual, but finding himself strangely interested in hearing the story. He tried to imagine his state of mind at the time, what he was like. It suddenly occurred to him that he knew Damon very little and perhaps there were the things he didn't know that could explain Elena's and Alaric's unconditional concern.

Damon placed a small bowl Bonnie had told them to bring at the edge of the map. "Eight," he replied not looking at Jeremy. "OK. Let's start," he said, resuming a stronger tone and rising to his feet.

xxxdelenaxxx

Stefan went back to the house, not really knowing what else he could do. He had no idea where Elena had gone, so there was no point trying to find her. He wondered if Damon knew she had left, but the thought of them in any context was too exhaustive and he couldn't bring himself to think about it. Perhaps the best he could do was to come back inside and make sure Shane wouldn't notice that everyone was gone. Even if there was a possibility he was just Shane, there was still no reason to entirely trust him, which included not letting him know that they didn't trust him.

But his hopes of covering everyone's tracks were doused as soon as he walked into the house.

"Oh, it's good to see you," Shane greeted him with a thin, careful smile, standing in the parlor with a book in his hand. "I almost thought everyone suddenly disappeared on me."

"Well, I went for a walk and I don't really keep track of what everyone's doing at any given moment," Stefan replied, easily making his tone sound sour. He turned to the side, directing his steps toward the stairs.

"It seems Jeremy went out for a walk too, which is strange considering that it's 4am and he said he was tired."

Stefan stopped in his tracks. All of a sudden, in one of the most unpleasant moments clarity he had ever experienced he realized everything at once: that Silas was always one step ahead, that he knew they would rescue him from the quarry, that despite what he had told Damon Silas wanted them to rescue him from the quarry, that there was a reason why Silas had kept him alive.

Slowly, he shifted his eyes to Shane meeting his deeply blank, dark stare.

"House of fools," Shane said in a voice that Stefan knew only too well.

And then all of a sudden Shane's eyes went wide and without thinking Stefan launched forward catching an expression of absolute dismay in his eyes and for a split second his eyes were locked with Atticus Shane's grief-stricken gaze before his eyelids closed and he crashed to the ground, his breathing, his heartbeat simultaneously dying down.

Stefan kept clenching and unclenching his fist in a nervous gesture as he took a step closer, watching in petrified amazement Shane's body turning into a stone.

"House of fools."

He heard a voice right behind him and before he managed to fully turn around Silas plunged a syringe into his arm.

xxxdelenaxxx

Jeremy's voice caught in his throat and he found himself unable to speak, unable to breathe as he crashed Bonnie's body against his chest, his hands traveling frantically all over her in an attempt to convince himself that he could really touch her, really feel her, that she was really here.

But it wasn't hugging her that convinced him. It was her laughter in his ears and her tears on his cheek when he pressed his cheek to hers.

"Alright, bonnie lads and lasses, pun intended, we _have_ _to_ go," Damon said, impatient to get back home as fast as possible.

Bonnie pulled herself away from Jeremy, blinking back the tears. "Let's go. We need to find Silas and make sure he really is a ton of bricks by now," she said, half-amazed that she could find it in herself to speak so reasonably after three months of being dead. But perhaps it was actually because of it that she felt such rush of energy that made her feel like she could do anything.

She glanced at Damon noticing that unlike Jeremy he hadn't missed the hint of doubt in her voice.

Jeremy nodded quickly, taking Bonnie's hand in his and following Damon out of the cave.

xxxdelenaxxx

Klaus stood at the edge of the clearing, waiting. He kept glancing at the watch annoyed by her being ten seconds late already. She could as well not come at all. He took a leap of faith asking for her help, since it was she who seemed to have the upper hand in their New Orleans arrangements... for now. He counted more on her to act on that ludicrous loyalty of her kind rather than out of desire to help him, even though him dying would also ruin her scheme in the process, so perhaps that was incentive enough.

She was supposed to arrive today, not in two days like he had told Silas and the rest. Perhaps it was foolish to think Silas wouldn't find out. Perhaps he knew. Or maybe he didn't. Oddly enough, it didn't seem to matter all that much, not when instead of concentrating on that he concentrated on the strangely enthralling thought of doing something that would bring even more light to Caroline's radiant gaze. He wasn't quite sure he understood how that worked. A part of him suspected he was doing it all wrong anyway, but at least he seemed to have taken one step into a different direction that he had been doing for the last millennium. He was somewhat surprised that there even was a different direction. That he didn't immediately fall into the abyss, but that instead there was a path, or maybe just a one-way road, he wouldn't know, but he kind of liked following it and not knowing - anything except that it was a new road and he had thought he had traveled them all already.

It felt so refreshing that it almost overshadowed all other emotions, including a hesitant conviction that whatever he would do, in the end it wouldn't change much between them. The past was too dark and her eyes, as radiant as they were, couldn't possibly look through it without hurting. And he didn't want them to hurt.

"I'm here."

Klaus turned around, a hint of relief in the strained smile he offered her. "Sophie. Thank you for coming."

xxxdelenaxxx

Having dropped Bonnie and Jeremy at the witch house, Damon hurried back home, every minute impossibly long, every second not short enough.

When he got out of the car the dull ache in his chest reminded him of when they had been in Chicago, when she had called him to tell him that she had almost been discovered by Klaus.

He opened the door and all but ran inside.

Elena was standing in the parlor, staring down at Shane's calcified remnants. She hastily turned around at the sound of the front door being opened, her face brightening at the sight.

She had just come back from her meeting with Elijah only to find the house entirely empty except for the human sculpture in the living room.

"Elena." Damon's voice faltered with relief and he smiled when they met half-way across the distance between them, falling into each other's arms, a fervid hug as obligatory as a series of frenzied kisses to wordlessly confirm that everything was alright.

"Where is Bonnie?" Elena asked, reluctantly pulling back, her eyes holding the faintest glimpse of worry that disappeared when Damon have her a small, reassuring smile.

"Jeremy and Bonnie are at the witch house. It seemed like the safest place. I thought it'd be better to first check if everything worked out the way it was supposed to."

Elena nodded, drawing a few shallow breaths. "I think it did. I can't believe it's over." The smile that flickered across her face turned into a frown when Damon only grunted under his breath in response. She gave him a questioning look.

"That's Shane's body," he said, looking over her shoulder at the human-shaped statue lying on the floor. "We need to find the other one, the real one. Only if the other one is in the same state as this one will it mean everything went according to plan."

"Why do you say that like you're not sure?" Elena asked, glancing at Shane and then looking back at Damon.

"Well, maybe because it didn't."

They both froze. Elena's hands were still holding onto Damon's forearms, clenching, her fingernails digging into the leather sleeves of his jacket. Damon's hands covered hers as he turned around, keeping one of her hands in his, almost crushing it.

"I have to say, I'm not even angry," Silas said, strolling toward them from the direction of the front door that closed all by itself with an unnatural click. "I actually find it endearing that you thought you could best me. Infinitely stupid, but endearing," he smiled thinly, the malicious glint in his eye so strange on a face that looked exactly like Stefan's. There was something purely nightmarish about it. "I don't know if you care about the technicalities of your failure, but what happened here," he said, gesturing to Shane, "is that I bound his life to mine. In a special way." He smiled. "That, for instance, kept him from dying on that island but it also made him... benefit from the restoration of the spell when you brought your witch back."

He tilted his head to the side, looking thoughtfully at the stone remnants for a moment. "I liked him," he said, lightly kicking the stony shape with his foot and turning toward Damon and Elena again. Slowly, his eyes focused, Damon moved in front of Elena. Silas smirked cynically. "Should I demonstrate the pointlessness of this or is my word enough?" He asked, glancing between them. "Maybe I should demonstrate," he said pensively after a moment of consideration and lifted his hand, slowly opening his palm.

Elena's face contorted in dismay and she was trying to understand what was happening when all of a sudden Damon's hand squeezed hers even tighter when he fell to his knees with a strangled gasp, countless gashes appearing on his face and the visible portions of his skin, his clothes becoming soaked in blood in a split second, gushes underneath the fabric opening up, the blood springing out of them.

"Stop!" Elena cried out, her frantic gaze flying to Silas before darting to Damon again when she fell to the floor along with him, her hands covered with blood when she was trying to hold him, not knowing what to do, the excruciating pain devastatingly clear on his face.

Silas' stare was blank as he continued, ignoring Elena's pleas, screams and tears.

But then suddenly something occurred to her. Throwing her arms around Damon, pressing herself to him so close her clothes became drenched with his blood, she whispered something into his ear.

A corner of Silas' mouth twitched when a moment later the blood disappeared, the contorted grimace vanishing from Damon's face.

With his eyes narrowed, he watched with dark fascination that when their eyes locked for just a moment, it looked almost like a physical connection, their eyes seeing only each other, their ears listening only to each other's words, the mutual trust like a natural spell that could rival all the magic in the world.

"_I give you a choice," Quetsiya said, her eyes green and orange at the same time, a color he could never name._

"_Go to hell," Silas growled._

"_Oh, I'm in hell. And I intend to take one of you with me."_

He clenched his jaw, willing the memory away."The wounds might not be real, but the pain is real," Silas continued, guessing that Elena remembered he had used that trick of hallucinatory pain before. "Everyone's worst enemy is always in the mirror," he said seriously and then chuckled, as if very pleased with the irony of his words.

Damon pushed himself back to his feet, Elena holding onto to him. Silas leaned against the back of the couch, scrutinizing them in a very unsubtle manner and Elena had an unpleasant feeling as if he was taking notice of their every movement, every flitting look they shared, the lightest touch.

"I like people who would do anything for love," Silas said wistfully. "In fact, I like you," he said, pointing to them, his gestures and his voice heavy with grotesque admiration. "That's why, instead of just simply kidnapping the girl, locking her up somewhere until the ritual, which is inevitably still four days away and making you both wait in dread for the day," he widened his eyes at them, chuckling briefly, "I thought I'd rather kindly make it so that when the day comes, you won't even care about it anymore," he extended his arms with a smile, as if he was announcing finding the solution to all of their problems.

They looked at him in grim silence, apparently expecting him to elaborate which made his smile twist into a sneer.

"I'll stop by right before the ritual to pick you up," Silas said in an eerily casual tone, looking pointedly at Elena and then pushed himself up from the couch and headed for the door.

Elena glanced up at Damon who had an equally tense, wary frown on his face.

They shifted their eyes to the door when it closed after Silas with a dull thud.

And then the house was filled with perfect silent.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I still don't think-" Jeremy started again, but Bonnie cut him off with growing impatience.

"I told you I had a bad feeling," she said, as if it should be enough of an explanation for him.

Enough to trudge through the forest and back to the boarding house instead of staying in the witch house, which was probably the single place right now where, thanks to the witches' spirits, Bonnie was moderately safe. Although there was no telling how the witches felt about her coming back. It very well could be they were angry enough to provide little protection. Yet, being there made Jeremy feel relatively calm while being out in the open was doing the exact opposite. He kept looking around, as if expecting Silas to appear at any moment. He did hope that Bonnie being back meant the spell was restored and Silas was gone, but he couldn't help agreeing with Bonnie that until they saw Silas' body in stone, it was more wishful thinking than anything else.

They emerged from the forest and Jeremy let go of a breath he didn't know he had been holding, glad that they had at least made it back to the house unscathed.

He glanced over his shoulder at the trees they were leaving behind and then turned to Bonnie.

"Do you think-" He began but stopped abruptly in mid-sentence at the look at Bonnie's face.

She was standing motionlessly, staring at something in front of them with wide eyes. Bracing himself, Jeremy followed her gaze.

The clearing was wide and bright, the grass looked fresh and green in the sunlight, the summer wind carrying the soft sounds of the forest across the empty space.

At first, for a split second Jeremy didn't know what was wrong. The peacefulness of the scene lulled his senses. But then all of a sudden, he felt cold shivers crawl up his skin, his heart hammering in his chest at the realization that crashed over him like an icy-cold wave.

The boarding house was gone.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all the fantastic reviews! :D The next several chapters are going to be a little weird, so bear with me ^^

**Beta:** **arabian** (aka **arabean**) - Thank you **so much**! :)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 13**

"And now we should probably-" Damon started, glancing suspiciously around the room, his eyes flickering to the door every now and then.

"Move?" Elena offered with a small shrug.

Damon looked at her, a cautious ghost of a smile passing through his face that brightened when she looked back at him, the intentionality of the callback clear in her eyes.

"Very helpful, thank you," he played along, even though his tone wasn't entirely humorous. He draped his arm around her and pulled her into his arms.

"_I would never do that."_

Maybe it wasn't the best memory to recall. Elena closed her eyes, her smile dimmed by the thought that she had been using so many definite words in the past. _Never. Always. _It made her sad that she felt like she couldn't be credibly using these words anymore. And sometimes she so very much wanted to.

"-have Bonnie repeat the spell," Damon said after a pause, replaying Silas' words in his mind, trying to make sense of them.

"I want to go see Bonnie," Elena said, lifting her head from Damon's shoulder, suddenly remembering what had happened, Silas' visit preventing her from getting all of the details earlier. "How is she?" She asked, but before Damon had a chance to answer, she continued with a frown. "Silas knows we brought Bonnie back and he didn't seem very concerned. What if the spell won't work on him again? Or if Bonnie is not strong enough?"

"Then it's fortunate we have multiple witches and not just one to figure it out," Damon said without enthusiasm, but with enough unwavering calm in his voice that it brought a faint smile to Elena's face. He gave her a mildly questioning look when she turned in his arms, placed her palms on either side of his face and looked at him in silence for a while.

"How do you do it?" She asked softly. "How do you never give up?"

He chuckled humorlessly, tucking her hair behind her ears with both hands. "It's never too late to give up," he said leaning down to kiss her. "But it's always too early."

xxxdelenaxxx

Caroline didn't even have enough time to rejoice at the sound of Bonnie's voice, because the shocking turn of events made her head spin and hurt so much she could hardly drive without getting distracted by a million disturbing thoughts. Plus, it was very annoying that witches could apparently suffer from headaches. She snorted mirthlessly at herself. She was beginning to miss being a vampire.

Hastily taking a sharp turn she also suddenly remembered that if she got hurt now, her wounds wouldn't heal. She wondered what would Bonnie's reaction to all of this be and if being a witch was easier than being a vampire. Although, of course there, was no saying if she would remain a witch. She couldn't get rid of the nagging thought that Silas was planning on killing her during his freaky ritual, because she couldn't imagine any other logical, relevant reason why he would turn her into a witch.

Deep in thought, she almost drove by the boarding house without stopping, because her eyes automatically searched the surroundings for a parking spot and there was definitely too much free space to park.

Even having Bonnie warn her about what she would see... or rather not see... it was still shocking to realize that the entire house was gone, just... not there anymore. Shaking herself out of her reverie, Caroline got out of the car and threw her arms around Bonnie, squeezing her tightly in an affectionate smiled, impatiently brushing the tears off her face and quickly regaining her composure.

"Jeremy told me that you're a witch now," Bonnie said in a tone that held more anxiety than wonder.

Caroline snorted weakly, raising her shoulders in a helpless shrug. "Oh, you know me. Always looking for new things to try on," she tried to joke but Bonnie easily saw through the half-hearted attempt and pulled her into another hug that Caroline didn't even try to resist.

Jeremy waited patiently for them to draw apart.

"So," Bonnie started with as much confidence in her voice as she could muster. "Since you're a witch, maybe you can help me with this," she said in an apparent attempt to cheer Caroline up, glancing toward where the boarding house should be.

Caroline gave her a tiny smile, more sad than amused, but then drew a breath, determined to pull herself back together and concentrate on the matter at hand.

"He didn't just make the entire house disappear, did he?" Caroline asked carefully, dread creeping over her.

Bonnie sighed. "I think he put a spell on it," she said with a frown, squinting. "Moved it to another dimension which rendered it invisible here."

Caroline widened her eyes at her, glancing at Jeremy who looked equally perturbed. "Another dimension?" She repeated in a tone indicating that she found the phrase highly annoying. "What does that mean? And how do we get it back here?"

"It may mean lots of different things, actually," Bonnie said unhelpfully. "Basically, it means that he put it in a different, separate reality, something like a bubble where there is only this house and nothing else except for what _he_ wants to be there."

Looking between Bonnie and Jeremy with frantic eyes Caroline crossed her arms over her chest, trying to calm her all too vivid imagination that was currently throwing a variety of horrifying scenarios on her, complete with people being chased by elephants across their living rooms and aliens jumping out of sock drawers.

"But how do we get the house back?" She asked, throwing her arms in the air. "Wait," she interrupted herself. "First of all, who is inside?" She looked at Jeremy.

"Elena," Jeremy said morosely, his face grim with worry, a grimace of helpless frustration on his face. "Stefan, Shane. Probably Damon, because he went straight home after dropping us at the witch house."

"Well, we can't know for sure who is inside, but that's what we think," Bonnie corrected and Jeremy nodded gloomily.

Caroline opened her mouth to comment on that, but then another thought struck her. "But how could Silas put a spell on the house? You're back, which means that Silas is gone, right?" She shifted her gaze between Bonnie and Jeremy, half-hoping they would nod even if only to make her feel better.

"Damon said that we couldn't be sure until we saw Silas in stone again," Jeremy muttered reluctantly.

"I don't think he's gone," Bonnie said, dashing the last flicker of hope that Caroline still had after Jeremy's cautious statement. "And even if he's physically gone, but still manages to retain a spell like that, it's not a good sign."

"So what do we do?" Caroline asked in a resigned voice.

"We need to find out what happened to Silas," Bonnie said determinedly. "If he's gone, then I need to figure out how to reverse the spell he put on the house. But if the spell hasn't been restored... It needs to be repeated and I'd need help with that. Jeremy told me about a witch from New Orleans that is supposed to arrive-"

Caroline's face suddenly lit up and Bonnie wasn't sure if she liked that it was accompanied by the word:

"Klaus!"

Caroline rummaged through her purse in search of her phone, noticing out of the corner of her eye the look that Jeremy and Bonnie exchanged when she speed-dialed the number.

"I have tow-truck guys on speed-dial too," Caroline informed them in an annoyed whisper.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Let's go," Damon said, when after searching the house they didn't find anyone there.

Elena wondered where had Stefan gone and if it was her fault that he apparently hadn't come back to the house after their conversation outside. She felt conflicted whether to tell Damon about her meeting with Elijah, but of course he would either not let her be until she told him why she had gone to see him or immediately figure it out without her saying anything and she couldn't risk that. Her own brilliant idea of always telling each other everything came back to haunt her conscience a little, but not enough to change her mind. He of all people should understand. He would do the same thing, she had no doubt. So if lying by omission was the only way to make sure he would be safe...

"Damon... wait," Elena said quietly, stopping in her tracks on their way to the door, her hand shifting in his, her fingers closing tightly around his. He turned to look at her. "I want you to... I need you to promise me something," she said with an expression he didn't like and she could already see a glint of defiance flashing in his eyes. She squeezed his hand harder and stepped closer. "If it doesn't work- if... he succeeds-"

"_Elena_." The glimpse of defiance flared into blazing anger. Damon grabbed her by the shoulders and for no reason she could clearly define she smiled and tears welled up in her eyes at the same time.

"Just promise me you won't blame yourself for not stopping it. It won't be your fault. I don't want you to-" She spoke hurriedly, trying to say as much as possible before he would inevitably cut her off.

He pulled her closer, his mouth hovering over hers, but instead of an angry protest she had expected he slid his hands upwards, cradled her face in his hands.

"Whatever happened to thinking I can always come up with something?" He asked in a slightly faltering voice. _"I'm going to get this cure for you... and I'm going to have to do things you're not gonna like."_

"I do think that," she said with a gasp. "But I _need_ to know that even if something happens to me, you'll be OK."

"I won't," he said through gritted teeth, his expression hardening to mask the unwanted vulnerability. "What do you want me to promise you? That I would move on, get over it eventually, forget? It's not gonna happen, because this, _this_," he said in a fervent voice, his eyes shining as he looked into hers so deeply she felt tremors run through her, "this is not a part of something, this is _everything_. This is not a stage, point in time. This is _it_. I don't do the present time or the limited time or any of this 'while it lasts' nonsense, Elena. Not with you."

She pressed her lips to his, tears rolling down her cheeks, slipping into the kiss. He held her face in his hands, kissing her almost cautiously at first, as if expecting her to break the kiss and attempt to continue her speech. But after a few moments they both got lost in the kiss, every inch of skin set aflame, every thought on fire, and the feeling she hadn't quite found the right name for yet almost tearing her apart. It seemed like they were shattering and putting themselves back together every other second.

"We'll survive this," he whispered ardently, brushing hasty, searing kisses back and forth across her lips.

"Either way," she whispered back, as if something had just occurred to her, as if she had just understood, her voice hoarse and shaking with emotion. "We'll be together." She stared at him unblinkingly, with wide eyes, waiting for the green light to madness shine through the haziness of his gaze, waiting for the confirmation that he understood too.

He nodded imperceptibly, his eyes dark with love and abandon. "We will."

She had turned the phrase "a love that consumes you" in her head a thousand times, but only now she realized what the difference was. It wasn't the kind of love you could lock in your arms and hold on to, because it was greater than you, it was the infinite abyss and once you jumped into it you never stopped falling. There was no going back, no living without it.

She nodded, feeling shocked, guilty, terrified and deliriously free and happy by what they had just agreed on. Because somewhere dark, somewhere so deep inside her heart she would've never dared reaching there before, it felt like the only thing she had wanted to say, the only thing she had wanted to hear.

It seemed almost like a betrayal and the thought paralyzed her briefly, but when he held her flush against him, his hand stroking her hair, his face buried in her hair, his voice warm in her ear, she knew he was feeling exactly the same and so it didn't feel like a betrayal anymore.

She slowly wrapped her arms around his neck and closed her eyes.

Together. They would get through this together and live.

Or they wouldn't get through this and die.

Together.

Except that no matter what _he_ wouldn't die. Elena pressed her lips to Damon's skin, breathing in his scent.

_Elijah handed Elena a small, intricately shaped bottle with the elixir she knew he had carried with him for five hundred years. "It will work on any creature vulnerable to death who really dies. Human, vampire, werewolf." He watched Elena hold the bottle tightly in both of her hands._

"_Thank you," she said quietly, but with so much genuine gratitude in her voice that he couldn't help a wistful sigh._

"_Klaus has always been right," Elijah said, his eyes meeting Elena's soft but luminous gaze when her attention shifted from the elixir to him. "Love is the greatest weakness of all." He smiled faintly and looked away._

xxxdelenaxxx

"Where are we going?" Caroline asked impatiently and even Bonnie felt like she had asked ten times too many, but for some reason Klaus didn't mind repeating himself:

"Considering that Silas is most likely still out there, I'd think the less you know the better."

"I thought all the witches hated you. How did you find one that is actually going to do you a favor?" Jeremy asked from the backseat where he was sitting with Bonnie who couldn't shake off the bizarre feeling caused by being with Klaus in Klaus' car and talking to Klaus.

"I think I already explained that. She's doing herself a favor," Klaus said, turning into a remote forest road.

"And you, why are you doing this?" Jeremy questioned suspiciously.

Caroline stiffened, hoping Klaus was not going to say anything that would get her in trouble with Bonnie, although a smile that crept onto his face seemed to threaten otherwise.

"You of all people should know," he said, glancing at Jeremy in the mirror. "Bonnie and I are going to make a fantastic team," Klaus said with a gleeful smirk.

"Excuse me?" Bonnie arched an eyebrow, shifting her gaze between Jeremy and Caroline and not finding their lack of surprised reaction paired with guilty looks very comforting.

Caroline shot Klaus a half-hearted glare. Jeremy narrowed his eyes at his back.

"Could someone please explain to me what's going on?" Bonnie asked in a slightly agitated tone, annoyed by the uncomfortable silence that suddenly fell.

"Actually," Jeremy started, struck by the thought, "it's not like you actually helped to bring Bonnie back after all so the deal is off... or at the very least it should be renegotiated," he added, prompted by Caroline, her eyes widening with a warning when she looked at him over her shoulder.

"What deal?" Bonnie asked with a frown, not enjoying being apparently the least informed person in the car.

"Seeing how I have the advantage, I don't see how it should be anyone else calling for renegotiation," Klaus retorted, turning off the engine. "Especially that you don't even need to worry about the second part of our deal anymore."

Caroline glanced at Klaus questioningly.

"Katerina is dead, so as you may infer, I no longer need you to find her," he said, getting out of the car while everyone else just stared after him in silence for a few seconds, taken aback by the announcement.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Let's go talk to Bonnie," Elena said at last, reluctantly pulling away from Damon.

She laced her hand through his arm as they went to the door. Damon reached out for the knob to pull the door open... and hissed in surprise when it burned his hand.

Elena caught his hand and looked at it with a grimace, watching it heal. "What was that?" She asked, shifting her eyes between the knob and Damon's face.

He shrugged. "Some silly witchy trick no doubt. He can't seriously think that's going to stop us from leaving the house," he said and before Elena had a chance to protest, he clenched his jaw and despite the searing pain and his skin burning in the process, he managed to open the door.

"Damon!" Elena whispered worriedly, grabbing his hand and not letting go of it until it healed. Only then she looked up and noticed that Damon was staring straight ahead with a frown on his face.

She followed his gaze and gasped.

The front door was open but outside, despite it being nine in the morning it looked like night. The pitch-black darkness was stretching from the door into the unfathomable space. It was impossible to see anything except... well, nothing.

"We're locked in," Elena said, mildly amazed that she didn't even sound surprise. "That's why he said he'd 'pick us up' in a few days. He knew we wouldn't be going anywhere, because he locked us here."

"That's ridiculous," Damon muttered, taking a step forward and lifting his hand as if he wanted to reach out over the threshold.

Elena grasped his hand and gave him a pointed look. "Don't touch this. It will probably burn you like the knob," she said, wrinkling her forehead, her eyes scanning the dark void in frustration. "Or worse."

Damon grimaced. "Elena, we're not going to just sit here and wait for him." He gave her an incredulous look.

"I know," she said quickly. "But... we should call Bonnie. If it's a spell, maybe she can remove it. Trying to step outside if we don't know- Damon!" She tugged on his arm when he raised his foot, readying himself to do just that. "Please stop. This is not worth the risk."

"Elena, unless I fall over, nothing is probably gonna happen," Damon said, flashing her a smirk before turning toward the door again.

Elena narrowed her eyes at him. "Your use of 'unless' and 'probably' is so reassuring," she said, managing to catch him slightly off guard when using her vampire speed and strength she pulled him away from the door and slammed him against the nearest wall. He gave her a mildly exasperated look to which she responded by standing on her tiptoes and pressing a kiss to his lips, her hands holding his pinned to the wall on either side of his face.

"While I can think of worse ways to spend four days than _that_," Damon said, waggling his eyebrows at her; she stifled a snort, "since plan A is pretty much in shambles, I really think we should rather get out of here and work on plan B. And C. And D."

Elena rolled her eyes and he used the momentary distraction to switch their positions. She held her breath when he trapped her hands above her head. Slowly leaning to the side of her neck where he planted a lingering kiss.

"One for the road?" Elena asked in a shaky whisper, closing her eyes.

Damon chuckled against her skin, his breath tingling the flesh sensitive from intermittent kissing and nibbling. "If I may?"

They felt each other smile despite having their eyes closed, Damon's fangs piercing through her skin, tortuously slow-

Elena's eyes flew open at the sound of a shotgun, Damon's body tensing against hers before he slid to the floor, grunting under his breath. She fell to the floor with him while searching the corridor for the source of the attack and blinking in bewilderment at the sight of a middle-aged man in old-fashioned attire, holding a shotgun pointed at them.

"Wooden bullets," Damon whispered for Elena to hear, shielding her as he pulled himself back to his feet as fast as possible.

The man fired again, but they managed to blur out of his way. He seemed disoriented for a second and then turned toward the parlor where he thought they had gone. Elena was standing in the middle of the room and he hesitated, his eyes scanning the surroundings, but before he could do anything else, Damon had the shotgun snatched out of his hand. He knocked the man down to the ground and was about to stab him with his own weapon when his hand suddenly stopped suspended in the air as he took in the sight in front of him.

Elena's forehead wrinkled in confusion at the astonished expression on Damon's face.

The man was staring up at him challengingly with cold, pale eyes.

"Father?"


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all the beautiful reviews! :)

Sooo... by now it's rather obvious I won't be able to finish writing/posting this story before the show returns. But I hope you'll continue reading it despite the inevitably wonderful distraction of *real* Damon & Elena being together (!) & happy (!) on our screens in... 3 days! :D

**Beta:** **arabian** (aka **arabean**) - Thank you _so so so much_! :]

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 14**

Biting her lip, Elena pushed her hand into Damon's wound, searching for a couple seconds before finding the wooden bullet and tearing it out, her hand covered in blood all the way to the wrist.

Giuseppe Salvatore was sitting on the couch opposite them with his hands bound. He winced in disgust and averted his eyes from the scene.

Elena spared him a fleeting glance, shifting on the couch where she was sitting behind Damon whose eyes were trained on his father. She suspected that a man capable of killing his own sons in cold blood couldn't possibly even appear amiable, but the intensity of his intimidating gaze and a glint of hostility in his eyes still surpassed her expectations.

"Is he a ghost or a hallucination?" She asked quietly, throwing the extracted bullet into the fireplace.

"Whatever he is, his bullets are pretty real," Damon replied sternly. "As always."

Elena looked at the wound on his back, waiting for it to heal and when it did she patted the skin with her fingertips and pulled his shirt back down. She was tempted to lick her fingers, but thought better of it and grabbed a small towel from the table instead.

Giuseppe, however, seemed to have read her first thought or perhaps it was just a coincidence that he whispered vehemently: "Monsters."

He gave her an icily condescending look and Elena wondered if he thought she was Katherine. Not that she believed he wouldn't consider her a monster if he knew she was Elena. She was a vampire and that's probably all that mattered to him.

Damon's mouth twitched, but he curiously found himself at a loss for words. His father's piercing gaze made him feel as if it was the 19th century all over again and he had never had the last word then.

Her forehead creasing in thought, Elena decided that if they were to be stuck with her father-in-law's ghostly hallucination she could as well try to remedy the situation and whatever Silas' intentions behind this were, turn everything around and turn it for the better.

She pressed a kiss to Damon's cheek and rose to her feet. Damon looked after her, his first instinct trying to stop her, but she was already standing in front of his father.

"I'm Elena." She started as casually as possible, the ropes around Giuseppe's wrists making the exchange a little awkward, but she thought that maybe once they actually started to talk, the ropes could be removed. "Would you like something to drink?" She added since they obviously weren't going to shake hands and Giuseppe's eyes clearly suggested that he wouldn't even want to.

He looked her up and down with an indignant sneer flitting across his face. "I wouldn't drink blood even from a queen, let alone a strumpet," he spat.

Elena spun around just in time to prevent Damon from reacting to the words, his eyes ablaze.

"Damon, this is not even him saying that," she said quickly, her hands splayed on Damon's chest. "It's one of Silas' mind games." She looked at him until he at last tore his gaze away from his father and looked at her. "Don't let him provoke us," she said in a low voice.

She turned around toward Giuseppe. "I actually meant tea or coffee," Elena said, undeterred, even though being hospitable to someone who wasn't real was perhaps as purposeful as punching him.

"Iced or with cream and sugar?"

Everyone's eyes shifted to where the new voice had come from. A girl in a waitress uniform was standing in the doorway with a tray in her hands.

Elena blinked, confused by the bizarre appearance, but then the realization hit her and her eyes widened in shock. Damon's arm shot up, keeping her steady when her legs nearly gave way and she glanced at him, the frown on his face telling her that he also recognized the girl.

"Do you want to see my daughter?" The girl continued in an oddly dispassionate voice, producing a picture from her skirt pocket. "She's four and half. Five actually. But I missed her fifth birthday," she said with a rueful smile, caressing the picture and then shifting her eyes from it to Elena, "because you killed me."

xxxdelenaxxx

"So our lovely Elena is stuck in an invisible house with her two boyfriends and a crazy professor," Klaus said, apparently finding the concept very amusing.

"She doesn't have two boyfriends," Jeremy muttered, annoyed with Klaus' antics as stupid and insignificant as they were. Bonnie noticed that he opened his mouth to add something, but then seemed to change his mind.

"We don't know for sure who is in the house," Caroline said grimly. "All we know is that none of them answer their phone and that the house is gone," she said, shifting her gaze to Sophie.

She wasn't sure where the impression had come from, but she didn't trust the newly arrived witch from New Orleans and as much as she could tell from looking at Bonnie, Bonnie didn't trust her either.

"Like Bonnie said, the house is not gone. It's under a spell," Sophie said, slightly thrusting up her chin.

"But why?"

"He needs them for the ritual so he wants to make sure they won't run."

"So you think he'll reverse the spell himself before the ritual?" Bonnie asked with a thoughtful frown.

Caroline's eyes darted to her and then to Sophie who nodded.

"We're not going to just leave them there until then, do we?" She exclaimed, looking to Jeremy for support.

"Caroline, if he's going to reverse the spell..." Bonnie sighed and drew another breath. "It makes much more sense to concentrate on stopping him and the ritual rather than spending all this time trying to figure out an extremely difficult spell that will be broken anyway," she said, determined to brush the doubts from her own mind as well.

"I understand that, Bonnie," Caroline said, even though the expression on her face clearly indicated otherwise. "But what if there is something bad going on in there? What if, I don't know, they are in pain? Or-"

"Getting them out won't help much. It won't stop Silas," Sophie said calmly but also with a hint of sadness in her voice. "The more time we spend on working out the plan to stop Silas the better our chances. I don't know your friends, but if they are reasonable people they would want you to do the smarter thing and the smarter thing is not to think about them right now."

Bonnie glanced at Jeremy, his forehead wrinkled, his jaw clenched.

"I'm with the witches on that one," Klaus said lightly when she noticed Caroline look at him out if the corner of her eye.

"Well, maybe I am not a reasonable person," Jeremy said with irritation, storming off.

"Let me talk to him," Bonnie said softly, exchanging a look with Caroline before following Jeremy.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Elena." Gently, Damon turned her head so she looked at him instead of over his shoulder and into the living room where Giuseppe was still sitting on the couch, the waitress standing in the same spot as well, her eyes fixed on the picture in her hand.

"I need to talk to her," Elena said determinedly, her breathing ragged.

"Elena, she is not real," Damon said, leaning toward her.

"How do you know?" She asked, looking lost for a second.

"You said it yourself," he said softly.

"I know," Elena said after a pause, leaning into his touch when he placed his hand on her cheek. "But whatever they are, whatever Silas is doing, it is all rooted in _our_ heads," she trailed off, her face clouding over with sadness. "I should've found out later if she had a family, if there was someone who needed help," she said disconsolately. "I don't even know why I didn't," she drew a breath. "Or maybe I do. I just wanted to forget that it ever happened."

"Then we'll do that," Damon said, cupping her face in his hands and inching his face closer to hers. "Once Silas is gone. But speaking to figments of our imagination is not going to help."

"Then what should we do now, Damon? Hide from them? They are here because we let them be here. Because..." she averted her eyes, staring gloomily into the distance for a second. "Maybe they are here because we want them to be?" she said, looking back at him.

Damon's nose twitched and by the despondent expression on his face she could tell that he might just think she was right. "Rationalizing it won't change the fact that this is Silas' sandbox, Elena, and of all the possible reasons why this is happening, giving us a shot at catharsis is the least likely one."

"I know that," Elena said with a hint of impatience, the glimpse in her eye indicating she was determined to have it her way no matter what. "But his intentions don't matter as long as we're able to make it what we want it to be." She covered Damon's hand on her face with hers. "Have you ever wished you had a chance to talk to your father at least that one more time before he died?" She asked softly.

"Well, I kind of lost interest in spending quality time with him when he killed me," Damon replied with a wry smile.

Elena bit her lip with a sigh, sliding his hands off her face and holding them in hers.

"Is everything OK?"

A genuinely concerned, pleasant voice broke into their conversation and they exchanged anxious, confused glances. Elena tilted her head to the side to take a better look at the person who had spoken. Damon turned around.

The red-headed girl looked at them with a friendly smile, her eyes soft, the only disturbing thing about her a messy, bloody gash on her neck.

Elena's eyes widened in further confusion and dismay that only deepened when she noticed the expression on Damon's face.

"_I'm not human and I miss it. I miss it more than anything in the world!..."_

"I don't think we've met," the girl said conversationally extending her hand to Elena. "I'm Jessica."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Jeremy-"

"Bonnie, I know," Jeremy said in a much calmer voice than Bonnie had expected. He held her gaze for a second before tiredly looking away. "But it's hard to just not think about what's happening in there and focus on a bigger picture."

"Elena's not alone there, Jeremy," Bonnie said softly. "I know you're worried about her. I'm worried too. But if I let myself think about that right now..." she broke off with a sigh. "We have to do what's best for them, not what's best for us," she said in a low, firm voice. "We can't worry about _our_ peace of mind right now."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Jeremy protested. "I just don't trust them," he said under his breath, glancing at Klaus and Sophie.

"Really?" Bonnie said, her mouth twitching in a tiny smile. "I was under the impression you thought Klaus and I would make a good team."

Jeremy chuckled briefly despite himself, closing his eyes for a second. "I _am_ sorry about that," he said, resuming a serious expression. "I'm sure we'll figure something out-"

Bonnie shook her head. "That's another thing I don't want to think about right now," she said, glancing at the newly acquainted witch. "Witches don't betray each other, Jeremy," she said suddenly, her voice carrying that note of bravery he learned to fear, because it was always followed by something bad happening to her.

"You're going to hold on to that?" Jeremy asked skeptically, studying Bonnie's face that grew increasingly pensive and realizing she was saying something between the lines.

Bonnie smiled and in what was probably meant to look from the outside like a spontaneous hug she wrapped her arms around Jeremy's neck and whispered into his ear, "Silas is a witch too."

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena brushed the tears off her face with her palms. She should've stayed with him. She shouldn't have left. But back then she had still been at that erroneous stage when she had believed that when someone was saying they wanted to be left alone they meant it.

Now they were in their bedroom and away from three strange ghosts walking around the parlor. Damon looked at her grimly with a glimpse of resignation in his eyes which were brimming with either fear or defiance, she couldn't tell which.

Elena lightly shook her head, not knowing what to say, her heart clenching when she realized that she wanted to cry more for him than for that girl who had lost her life just because she had been at the wrong time, in the wrong place, being a good person, trying to help.

But she couldn't change what she was feeling. There were no conflicting emotions. Despite being fully aware that what had happened was wrong, she found herself not really caring for the circumstances or an explanation of any kind. She didn't need an explanation and that was what frightened her most. It was an atrociously liberating feeling. She didn't need to weigh his virtues and his sins. She just felt the overpowering rush of love through her veins, through every fiber of her body and all she cared about right now was to erase this sad look from his face.

She threw herself into his arms and a few heartbeats passed before, following a moment of startled amazement, he hugged her back, crashing her against him, face buried in her hair.

"I don't deserve for you to love me like that," he murmured without loosening his embrace and she could hear him gritting his teeth when he added in a tortured, dark whisper. "But I want you to. I always wanted you to."

She drew back to look at him, her eyes as shining as his, as if they were both in a fever. "I never thought I could love anyone like that," she whispered, her lips trembling, face glimmering from tears that were rolling down her cheeks.

He couldn't help thinking that she sounded more defeated than happy and that's not what he had ever wanted for her. "Elena-"

"I'm not happy," she whispered, as if reading his thoughts, her voice as faltering as the smile that she gave him through her tears, her eyes bright when she inched her lips closer to his, clutching his shoulders. "I'm beyond that," she said in a hushed, ardent voice, as if she was saying out loud the most astonishing secret she had just discovered.

He weaved his fingers into her hair, held her face near his. "I'm sorry. Elena, I'm so sorry," he whispered the words, meaning and not meaning them with equal measure, a grimace of pain on his face.

"It hurts... _so_ much," she said, choking in mid-sentence, her breath catching in her throat.

He stared at her in breathless wonder, in self-condemnation."I _know_."

Her eyes fluttered shut, she almost couldn't keep them open overwhelmed by the feeling that was methodically tearing her apart; pain, pleasure, she would never be able to differentiate. She wanted to ask him when he had started feeling like that? When it had happened. How?

She smiled, the most feverish, radiant smile. "I don't deserve for you to love me like that," she whispered, as if it was the last sentence she was going to ever utter, as if in the next moment she was going to die.

And she did, she felt like she did when he crashed his lips against hers and kissed her with such unrestrained, wild passion that she began shaking in his arms, recklessly cradling him as close to her as possible.

They didn't hear anything, but it felt like a gust of cold wind, and all of a sudden they were aware of someone's presence. They drew apart, just an inch or two, their eyes simultaneously darting to the door.

"Do you really think this means anything to him, honey?"

The door was wide open and in the doorway stood Bree with a dark, bloody hole in her chest and her heart in her hand.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:** Thank you so so so much for all the amazing reviews! :]

It's October 3rd today! ! ! ! ! ! ! :D How awesome is that?! ^^ It'd be even more awesome if I could feel my face again... lol I just came back from a dentist's appointment (which should be on the list of "10 things you shouldn't do on the day of TVD premiere") and although I'm very happy the pain is gone (I spent two nights _crying_), my face still feels numb and I was told I may feel *weird* for up to 48 hours *sigh* But anyway. LET'S CELEBRATE! ;D I think 5x01 has every chance of being the best premiere ever, so let's hope it will really be WONDERFUL :)

**Beta:** **arabian** (aka **arabean**) - Thank you SO MUCH! *hugs*

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 15**

The overcast sky looked heavy with grayish clouds, the interiors of the witch house even darker than usual despite the candles scattered around. Jeremy was sitting cross-legged on the dusty, wooden floor next to Bonnie and Sophie, looking carefully through one of the grimoires.

"Newbie witches are still expected to help," Bonnie said humorously, shifting her gaze from the grimoire to Caroline, who was standing near one of the windows, staring at something outside.

Caroline flinched, her eyes darting to Bonnie. "What?" She almost gasped, having heard Bonnie's voice but unable to recall the question.

Bonnie slightly narrowed her eyes at her and after a moment of consideration rose to her feet and swiftly walked up to Caroline whose face scrunched up a little in embarrassment when Bonnie looked out of the window to see what she had been looking at. Not able to walk inside due to the witches' spirits blocking the entrance, Klaus was sitting outside on a solitary tree stump, deep in thought.

"Doesn't he have anything better to do?" Bonnie muttered and then shifted her eyes to Caroline and after looking at her intently for a few seconds sighed with more resignation and less anger than Caroline had expected. "I know that look."

"What look?" Caroline asked, aiming for a half-clueless, half-indignant, half-innocent tone... Too many halves was probably the reason why the tone didn't work.

Bonnie snorted mirthlessly as if she was recalling an old joke Caroline didn't know. "'We kissed, now it's weird' look," she said somewhat sternly.

Caroline widened her eyes at her. "How do you-"

Only then Bonnie's expression actually changed into a genuinely surprised and horrified one. "Oh my God, you _did_!"

"Hey, that's not a fair technique of getting information out of your best friend!" Caroline pursed her lips.

"I don't know what's worse about coming back to life," Bonnie said in a tone Caroline couldn't immediately interpret, "finding out that Silas is still alive or that _all_ of my friends are dating evil vampires."

"He's- I'm not dating anyone!" Caroline exclaimed, causing Sophie and Jeremy to turn their attention to her.

"Kissing, whatever," Bonnie allowed a correction and shaking her head walked off leaving Caroline to stare after her in not entirely warranted indignation.

xxxdelenaxxx

He remembered feeling that it wasn't even a decision. Back then it was a natural necessity. Not because of the betrayal itself, but because he hadn't seen it coming. Again. A bloody cover-up for his own callowness. A switch on? Switch off? Like Stefan's, probably fried. He hadn't thought about her since he had walked out of that bar, not once. Was that the real reason for feeling guilty, more so than killing her? He wasn't sure. He wasn't sure he entirely cared about the answer.

Gripping Elena's hand in his, Damon made to walk past Bree and across the hallway. She didn't follow, merely turned her head to the side and looked after them.

"You killed her?" Elena said in a low voice, more confused than upset. "When?" She asked, marveling inwardly at herself for choosing to ask such sensitive, thoughtful questions.

"Right before we left," Damon replied brusquely, eyebrows furrowed.

Elena blinked, remembering waiting in the car when he had went back for just a few moments to 'say goodbye'. Which he apparently did very literally.

"Why?" She asked, sincerely perplexed.

"Why?" Damon mirrored her confused expression, although she could tell he wasn't being entirely carefree about it. "She sold me out. She called that, whatever his name was," he frowned with a wave of his hand, "told him where we were and she _knew_ he was going to kill me."

"But he didn't."

"Courtesy of," Damon said, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek.

Elena halted in her steps and stopped before they reached the stairs. "We're going to spend four days with ghostly appearances of all the people we've killed," she said gloomily. "And your father," she added as an afterthought, realizing there was a small flaw in her logic.

"I do hope my father is an exception," Damon said seriously. "There is no way all the people from Stefan's wall could fit in the parlor. _And_ Klaus drank all the bourbon so we can't throw a party to distract them from haunting us around the house."

Elena didn't look amused, but she didn't look upset either. She sighed. "Damon, this isn't funny."

"I know this isn't funny, _Elena_," he said in that tone that always gave her a little jolt, because it usually preceded him laying out a plan he was determined to carry through no matter what anyone would say. "But it's hardly our main problem at the moment." She gave him a questioning look. "We need to get out of here."

"How do we get out of here if Silas put a spell on the house?" Elena asked with a humorless grimace.

"I don't know. Yet. But what I do know is that playing a host to a bunch of hallucinations won't bring us any closer to getting out of here," Damon said in one breath, his eyes fixed on Elena. She looked away, apparently still unconvinced that ignoring the ghosts was the best course of action. Damon lifted his hand and brushed the backs of his fingers across her cheek. "Elena."

She shifted her eyes back to him and gave him a small smile. "You always say my name like that."

"Like what?" He muttered, sifting his fingers through her hair, letting his forehead fall against hers.

"Like..." She placed her hands on his chest. "Like as if you like saying it."

Her eyes flickered between his closed eyelids and his lips that stretched into a small, lop-sided smile.

"I do like saying it," he said in a low voice. "Elena." He opened his eyes and she smiled.

The sound of broken glass interrupted their conversation and they exchanged a look before looking down the hallway toward where they had heard the sound coming from.

Bree was no longer anywhere in sight, nor was anyone else, but the noise returned, only this time it was more reminiscent of screeching than glass breaking. Soon they discerned two clear sources of different noises: one was their bedroom, the other was Stefan's.

They were near Stefan's room when Elena put her finger across her lips in a hushing gesture, motioning for Damon to go check Stefan's room while she would check theirs.

Ignoring Damon widening his eyes at her in protest, she took a few steps backwards but he turned to follow her regardless of her shaking her head at him, but then they both got suddenly distracted by the doors to both rooms springing open. And before they managed to exchange another look they got sucked into the respective rooms, doors slamming shut and locking behind them.

xxxdelenaxxx

"_Why are you all chipper?" Stefan regarded Damon carefully, with a hint of abstract suspicion in his eyes._

_Damon shrugged, his smile turning into a frown but not without a visible effort. "No reason," he said dismissively, but there was that happy glimmer in his gaze that didn't quite go away despite the frown._

_Stefan blinked and then suddenly the memory of this scene was invaded by what he was going to find out a couple of days later._

"_I kissed Damon."_

_Catching Damon, who already had his back turned to him, off guard, he grabbed his shoulder, swirled him around and punched him in the face._

Stefan woke up with a gasp.

"Wasn't that fun? I thought you might like it."

Stefan sat upright, for a second not knowing where he was, not remembering what happened. He looked around, noticing that he was in a small cell with wooden bars that glistened in the dim light. His eyes followed the shadow on the floor shifting in the shimmering light of the candle.

Silas was sitting in a chair across from the cell, with a book in his hand. He was looking at Stefan from under his brows, his head tilted forward.

"I like your style," Silas continued, returning his gaze to the book in his hands and only then Stefan realized it was one of his diaries. "Very engaging. Although you should double-space. It's a little hard to read the way it is."

Stefan glared at him, trying to stand and finding the task strangely tiring.

"You may be feeling a little faint," Silas said, thumbing through the pages, as if searching for a particular passage. "I drained some of your blood. I'll need it for the ritual." He glanced at Stefan. "A blend of doppelgangers' blood. Yours and Elena's. And actually I didn't want to bother Elena with the blood thing, since she's already volunteering her body and all, but a witch friend told me I can't use her blood, because she's mortal."

"Good to know there are witches out there who know more than you," Stefan muttered sternly, trying to gather his thoughts.

Listening to Silas in growing dread and feeling somewhat irritated that no one had apparently filled him in on all the details before, Stefan tried to make sense of everything he was hearing. Caroline had told him about the ritual, how Silas intended to bring back from the dead that girl Quetsiya had killed...

His train of thought got sidetracked by Silas' last sentence and his eyes subconsciously surveyed his surroundings, his heart skipping a bit at the sight of a lithe body lying on the floor in a twin cell next to his.

"Katherine," Stefan whispered, taking in her ash-pale form, her skin almost transparent and he suddenly realized he couldn't smell any blood in her vicinity. Her body seemed drained of all blood.

"I'm confused," Silas said, wrinkling his forehead, his eyes fixed on one of the diary pages. "Did you stop loving her because she turned out to be dead to begin with, because she died in that fire or because you found out she had faked her death?"

Stefan leaned his back against the wall, collecting his strength before setting to walk toward the wooden bars. He couldn't be further away from wishing to hold a conversation, but he decided that if he was to discover some useful pieces of information and get out of here, staying silent wouldn't probably maximize his chances.

"I never lover her," Stefan said tiredly, trudging forward one step at a time. "She was compelling me."

Silas pursed his lips skeptically. "I read in the other journal, the first post-transition one, that once you got your erased memories back, you remembered how she had compelled you to drink her blood," he said, tilting his head to the side. "You never mention her compelling you to be in love with her."

Silas looked up, watching with indifferent eyes Stefan make his way to the end of his cell, reach out, grasp the wooden bars-

And jump away with a stifled cry, his hands sizzling.

"Careful. The wood was soaked in vervain," Silas observed dispassionately, returning his attention to Stefan's diary.

"Why are you doing this?" Stefan asked, watching his hands heal, albeit rather slowly. "We didn't do anything to you. Is it about the cure? Are you that upset because you couldn't take it?"

"I see your brother didn't fill you out on all the details," Silas said and Stefan's mouth twitched. "I'm not upset about not dying, at least not anymore. Why would I be if I can enjoy the eternity with my Arya instead? Quetsiya is preventing me from reaching for her to the Other Side and bringing her back in her true form, so I'm going to bring back her spirit, put it in Elena's body and wait until you and your friends convince Quetsiya to let Arya's body get through into this world. If you fail, well, then I'll be stuck with Arya's spirit in Elena's body forever, which isn't that big of a problem, for me at least, since technically it's a _very_ similar one," he concluded with a smirk.

Stefan stood frozen to the spot, utterly horrified by what he had just heard. "I don't understand," he heard himself say despite his mind being completely blank. He remembered feeling like that when his switch was off. He was saying things, hearing them, but they didn't belong to him. Only it disgusted him in regard to his past, but right now he felt irrationally grateful for this ability to carry on with an investigation despite the grip of fear over his heart. "I thought you were the most powerful witch in the history. How is it that a less powerful witch is able to thwart such a simple task as bringing a single person back from the dead? Weren't you supposed to raise all the dead?" He asked, remembering the legend Shane had shared with them.

Slowly, Silas smoothed out one of the pages in Stefan's journal with the palm of his hand, his expression unreadable. "Witchcraft is never simple," he answered vaguely.

Squinting, Stefan felt a rush of adrenaline, so familiar and yet so entirely different in these circumstances. Here lay the prey and he would hunt it down slowly but effectively.

"You could find other witches to help you," Stefan continued, "on the Other Side or here," he continued in that voice that reminded him of the 20s, of Chicago, rich blood, expensive alcohol and the smell of Rebekah's hair. He despised those memories, but his voice, that voice suddenly became his most reliable asset in the world. "How can Quetsiya be more powerful? Surely, other witches would not side with a witch who betrayed her kind. I'm actually surprised that all the angry dead witches spirit didn't get the best of her yet. Having dealt with them I'd say they can be rather vicious."

Stefan watched Silas' expression that betrayed nothing, except that it was the nothing he knew perfectly well, the nothing he had mastered and could read and interpret in five seconds, because it was painted on 'his' face.

"Why didn't you think of this before? Why bringing... Arya, right? back wasn't your original plan but a back-up one?" Stefan came up close to the end of his cell again and eyed the bars. "Seems like a conscience problem to me," He whispered with a slow smile. "Why is it really that you wanted to die?"

Silas' eyes flashed dangerously, but Stefan didn't back off.

He remembered one humid day when at the overheard mentioning of a commotion he had run outside, his ten-year-old legs carrying him swiftly across the gardens. He had arrived at the scene out of breath, chest heaving, some of the dark eyes of the people around briefly shifting to him, but the attention had remained elsewhere. The whip had swished through the air, the sound so shockingly loud and sharp that he had cringed every time. He could have only seen the side of his father's angry face, his hair damp with sweat, Damon's blood splattering over his white shirt with every blow. "Have you had enough? Now can you do it? Or shall I continue doing to you what you were supposed to be doing to them?" Giuseppe had growled and Stefan had stood with wide eyes, his hands shaking. It was a humid day. April 23rd 1857. The shortest diary entry he had ever made. _"I want to be like my brother."_

Silas' piercing gaze was cold as glass but it flickered to Stefan's hands when he very slowly propped his elbows between the bars, the sickening smell of sizzling flesh permeating the air, but his face remained condescendingly calm even as droplets of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Why is it really," Stefan asked in a low voice, his hands steaming red from vervain, blisters breaking every pore of his skin, "that you can't bring her back?"

Silas closed Stefan's diary and rose to his feet. "Enjoy the rest of your day," he said blankly, leaving the dungeon and locking the door behind him.

Outside, he leaned against the cold wall and closed his eyes.

"_You can choose," Quetsiya said speculatively, her eyes odd, like everything else about her and he screamed at himself inwardly for ever trusting her. "I either kill you or her," she said with an unpleasant smile, apparently pleased with her charade._

_Silas stared at her. "Why are you doing this?" He whispered, his eyes flickering to the girl curled up on the floor next to him, both of them wounded and bloodied and weak. Arya's eyes were repeatedly fluttering closed from blood loss and exhaustion._

_Quetsiya's face was inches from his in a flash. "I'm helping you. I'm just proving to you that you don't love her-"_

"_I do," he answered immediately._

"_-enough." She smiled that smile again. "Not as much as you love magic, eternal life, power. Choose," she breathed, pressing a golden dagger to his chest, the blade breaking through his skin, blood oozing out of the gash, staining his shirt. "You or her?"_

_The sharp metal scraped against his heart._

_The blood felt cold trickling down his chest._

_He closed his eyes. His low voice didn't sound like his but it was loud enough and louder in his ears than her stifled scream._

"_Her."_


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all the fantastic reviews! :D

This is not the happiest chapter, but I think we can all handle a bit of DE angst after such a BEAUTIFUL & HAPPY season premiere ;D

**Beta:** **arabian** (aka **arabean**) - Thank you so so so much! :):):)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 16**

As soon as the door closed after Silas, Stefan pulled his hands away from the vervain-soaked wooden bars and grimaced at the burned, messy gashes deep enough that he could see his bones.

"That was... a rather superfluous... and stupid... display of... bravado."

Stefan's head swung to the side in surprise. In the adjacent cell Katherine's colorless lips trembled slightly, her voice weak and raspy, her blood-less body motionless on the cold stone floor.

"You're alive," Stefan whispered, labeling his reaction as the result of astonishment. "I thought-"

"He... thought so... too," Katherine murmured tiredly with the faintest ghost of her usual smile, but unable to open her eyes for even a second.

Stefan took a few steps toward the rods that were dividing their cells, looking Katherine up and down with a confused frown on his face. "He said he couldn't use your blood."

"He... gave it... to Klaus," Katherine said barely above a whisper, her lips not really moving as she spoke.

"He's working with Klaus?" Stefan said more to himself than to her, his eyes absently scanning his surroundings. Then his gaze returned to Katherine. "But he didn't drain of all your blood-"

"He did," Katherine muttered, wincing.

Stefan frowned. "Clearly, he didn't, if you're still alive."

Katherine made the greatest effort to lift her eyelids a little. "He did," she repeated through her teeth before she let her eyes closed again. "I don't know... how I'm... still..." she moaned under her breath with a grimace, words catching in her dried throat.

Stefan eyed her for a few moments in silence. He seemed to ponder something before sliding to the floor near the bars, eyebrows furrowed. "Can you move at all?" He asked somewhat sternly, watching his hands heal out of the corner of his eye.

Katherine's eyes blinked open for a second, as if questioning why he was asking her that.

For a few more moments Stefan waited for the skin on his hands to heal and when it did, he brought his wrist to his mouth and ripped into the flesh before holding it through the steel bars separating the two cells.

Breathing with audible difficulty, Katherine clenched her jaw and gathering all the strength she had left crawled across the floor toward Stefan.

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena heard the click of the lock as if the door was shut by an invisible hand. She grabbed the knob as fast as she could and tried to pull it with all her might. She wondered if it would help if she found a spare key. The door could as well have been spelled, but perhaps the idea was worth giving it a try. She decided to start searching in the desk's drawer, but the sound of laughter coming from the bathroom redirected her attention.

Bracing herself for another hallucinatory visitor, she slowly walked toward the bathroom and stopped dead in her tracks in the doorway.

The sight of Andie wouldn't have probably dismayed her so if she was alone.

Elena stared at the scene in the bathtub for a split second and then ran to the door, trying to open it in a fit of renewed panic. It was one thing knowing that something had happened in the past; witnessing it happening was quite another.

Elena was hitting the door with her open palms, kicking it, pulling the knob-

The door opened, sending her to the floor, but she couldn't care less, relieved to have fought her way out. However, before she even had a chance to jump back to her feet, two people focused exclusively on kissing and groping staggered inside and the door closed immediately after them.

The first thing that registered in her mind was the swishing sound of Rebekah's thick green taffeta dress made when it collided with the wall. Elena's breath caught in her throat and she froze for a second before scrambling to her feet, squeezing her eyes shut and covering her ears.

But instead of blocking the images and sounds from invading her mind, under her closed eyelids the images appeared even more vividly and with her palms over her ears all the sounds were even louder and clearer.

She opened her eyes with a gasp and rushed to the door, frantically tugging on the knob, tears rolling down her face, her heart contracting painfully even as she was telling herself that it was only Silas' malicious game, a hallucination, something that had happened seemingly ages ago.

But no matter how hard Elena tried to reason with herself, running into Rebekah on her way out of the house was still very different from hearing her moan and cry out.

She had been angry at herself for driving him to stupid drunken revenge sex. She had been angry at him for lashing out like that just because he had riled her up with his over-protectiveness and she had tossed some careless words at him. But she hadn't been entitled to feeling jealous then. She had been angry but she had not been in agony.

Her fists hurting from pounding at the door, Elena slid to the floor, her face pressed against the door as she shook from crying, unable to stand what was happening in the background. Because now it wasn't about hurt pride, irritation or disappointment. It was only love that the sight of him ignited in her, only love that she felt. Now every kiss he would share with anyone else was causing her excruciating pain and it was helping very little that she knew she was made to see and hear things that weren't really happening right now.

Because now she loved those eyes that weren't looking at her. She loved those lips that weren't kissing her. Loved those hands roaming over somebody else's body. Now they belonged to her. His every kiss, every touch. She knew by heart every line on his face, every inch of his skin, every undertone of his voice. His scent was in her hair, his words echoing in her head.

Elena covered her face with her hands, a strangled cry escaping her as she tried to make the hallucinatory images and sounds go away, but the harder she tried the more aggressive the sounds were becoming and even as she didn't look toward the bed the images were appearing in front of her eyes as if someone was shoving the clips right in front of her face.

Her heart hammering in her chest, she tried to calm down, explaining to herself for a thousandth time that she was being unreasonable, that she shouldn't let that affect her. It wasn't real. It wasn't real. It wasn't really happening. It was a hallucination. It wasn't Damon.

Taking a deep breath Elena clenched her fists, trying to clear her head, focus on something else, a different image, different thought... A memory.

_Their first road trip this summer. She was standing next to the car with a small towel in her dirty hands. Glancing to the side, she caught a glimpse of herself in the car mirror, messy hair and blood dripping off her chin. The morning sun was only half-way up, the pale, grayish orange glow giving her skin a dull tint, her eyes glassy from exertion she didn't learn how to handle easily yet, droplets of sweat clinging to her collarbones due to an unusually humid morning._

_The pair of campers were back to undisturbed sleep, their necks wiped clean, the small wounds barely visible. Damon lined up their shoes and rose back to his feet._

"_Developed a lasting fondness for red highlights?" he asked jocularly, coming up from behind her and lightly pushing a strand of bloodied hair off her cheek._

_Elena shifted her eyes from the mirror to him, the expression on her face turning his smirk into a frown. "Elena?" He studied her face in great intensity and frowned even more when she seemed to flinch under his scrutiny._

"_I saw a bottle of water over there. I'll just go... just go wash my face," she said in a hushed voice, avoiding his eyes._

_He squinted briefly, staring thoughtfully after her as she turned around and took a couple of steps toward the camp._

_She stopped abruptly in her tracks when he suddenly blurred in front of her. He held her gaze as he plucked the towel out of her hands and threw it away over his shoulder. Her eyes followed the towel but flickered back to him when he cradled her face in his hands and gazed at her until she relaxed under his touch. She watched his lips as they descended onto hers and he kissed her slowly, adoringly. She made a feeble attempt to keep the kiss chaste, self-conscious of the remnants of blood in her mouth, but he wouldn't let her stop him from kissing her as thoroughly as possible. When he released her lips, he brought her hands to his mouth and began kissing her knuckles, the backs of her fingers, her palms._

"_You're beautiful. You're flawless. Always."_

xxxdelenaxxx

"And what are _you_ doing?"

Klaus looked up from his phone and met Caroline's guarded gaze, her voice matter-of-fact with the faintest hint of hesitation in it. She slowly walked toward where he was sitting on the tree stump outside of the witch house.

"Obviously waiting for the spell updates," he answered, gesturing briefly to the building.

"It may take them a couple of _days_ to figure it out, so..." Caroline arched an eyebrow, but he just continued looking at her with a faint glimmer of humor in his eyes, so she continued, "are you going to sit here for the next seventy two hours?"

With a small smirk Klaus dropped the phone back into his pocket and stood up. "Alright, I confess. I was waiting for you to come out and talk to me."

"Do you trust her?" Caroline asked abruptly, not really liking the turn the conversation was taking, although to be fair what had she expected coming out to talk to him? She inwardly rolled her eyes at herself. "That witch, Sophie? How do you know her?"

Klaus squinted briefly, his smile slightly dimmed by something Caroline couldn't quite place. "I don't trust anyone, Caroline."

"That makes this whole arrangement rather difficult," she said after an unnecessary pause, not really knowing why she had thought he would have amended his statement.

"There is no arrangement. Everyone's just doing what's best for them, hoping they don't die in the process."

"What about you?"

"What do you mean?" Klaus tilted his head to the side.

"You said Silas asked you to stop us from bringing Bonnie back and she is... back," Caroline said tentatively, studying his face.

A ghost of another smirk flitted through his face. "And just why would you worry about that?" He asked in a low voice, taking a step toward her. "Ah. That's right," he said as if suddenly remembering something. "You're worried about your bloodline dying."

Slowly, Caroline breathed in - and breathed out. "What do you want from me?" She whispered, her forehead wrinkled, her eyes almost sad.

Klaus' smile vanished and for a moment he just looked at her gloomily. "I don't want anything from you, Caroline," he finally said and Caroline tried to ignore the ridiculous pang of disappointment. But then, before the bitterness even settled, Klaus wiped it clean away. "I want _you_."

xxxdelenaxxx

Damon gave the door that slammed shut after him a mildly irritated look. He reached for the doorknob and tried to open it. "Of course," he muttered with a sour smile when the door resisted.

Apparently, Silas decided that locking him up in Stefan's room was going to be far worse than having him face another one of his victims. He just might have been right, Damon thought, continuing his attempts at pulling the door open, considering that there was really nothing to do here, except for reading Stefan's diaries. Or cleaning up. Damon gave the room a quick look-over. It was as cluttered and unkempt as the diaries and if nothing else, the layers of dust on the book shelves were definitely giving away Stefan's actual age.

But the sound of voices made Damon pause in his efforts, a twinge of cold slitting through his chest even before his mind recognized the voices and realized what was happening. He grabbed the doorknob, pulling it so forcefully his nails scratched the golden pigment off the surface.

It was only a hallucination, he knew, but somehow the awareness wasn't helping much, not when he could see Elena's face out of the corner of his eyes, hear Stefan's-

The sounds and images hit him even harder when he tried to shut off his hearing and close his eyes. He clenched his jaw, teeth gritting. He kicked the door, making a dent in it which looked very odd, as if the door was made out of rubber and not wood. He was trapped. At least physically, he thought trying to fight his senses, turn his attention to something else inside his mind. It was his mind Silas was using, wasn't it? All it took was to think about something else, escape into a different corner of his own brain, hold on to something anchored far away from this, something good, something real, something his. He took a sharp intake of breath. A memory.

_The first week of August, their third night in Louisiana. It was still dark when his eyes fluttered open prompted by something warm and soft skimming repeatedly over his skin. Elena pressed a few more kisses to his skin and looked up at him with a smile when he stirred awake._

"_Do you remember where I put my new sunglasses?" She asked in a whisper, glancing fleetingly around the dark hotel room before looking back at him. "I can't find them."_

_Damon blinked a few times before slowly pulling himself straighter against the headboard, holding Elena's arms so she wouldn't slide off him in the process. "Your sunglasses?" He rubbed his eyes with one hand. "I think they stayed in the car," he said after a moment of consideration._

_Elena drew a breath, remembering. "You're right," she nodded. "Thank you," she said, and scooted off the bed, tiptoeing to the chair and grabbing her long sweater._

_Damon propped himself on his elbows and watched her in drowsy confusion."Elena? What are you doing?" He asked cautiously._

_She looked up at him. "I'm going to get my glasses," she replied simply, her face so naturally serious that he didn't think he had any other choice than accept that for whatever reason she was being serious._

"_What do you need them for right now?" He asked, already sliding off the bed and reaching for his shirt. "Wait, wait." He pulled the sweater that she already had half-way up her arm off her and tossing it back over the back of the chair. "I'll go get them. Go back to bed." He gently grasped a handful of her hair and pushing her lips against his kissed her before walking out of the room, his shirt unbuttoned, strands of hair sticking in every direction._

_He walked across the unpleasantly bright corridor, turned around the nearest corner and pressed the elevator button. He stepped inside and after a short ride got off at the lobby level and crossed the entrance area heading for the underground parking followed by the eyes of the receptionist who arched an eyebrow at his disheveled appearance._

_Having fetched Elena's sunglasses from the compartment, Damon walked back to their room, opened the door, walked inside-_

_The room was decorated with a dozen of small, heart-shaped red lamps. In the middle stood a small table set for a dessert with two small plates, forks, two glasses, a bottle of champagne and a cake crowded with impossible to count number of candles, the sea of tiny flames shimmering in the dimly lit interior._

_Elena stepped forward wearing a white, lacy mini-dress. "It's five minutes past midnight," she said, pointing to the clock. "It's your birthday today," she added with a smile, her eyes glimmering with amusement at the completely stunned expression on his face. She walked up to him, took the sunglasses out of his hands and threw them away over her shoulder. "Happy birthday," she whispered against his lips and waited for him to smile before she kissed him._

xxxdelenaxxx

Ever since Jeremy noticed Bonnie 'accidentally' touch Sophie's hand he was impatient to talk to Bonnie alone, but he could tell it wouldn't be possible any time soon, if only in order to avoid raising suspicions.

"How was it on the Other Side?" Sophie asked conversationally after they were all busy reading in silence for a longer while. Her tone was calm and her faint smile seemed sincere.

Bonnie returned the smile with controlled ease that Jeremy wasn't very fond of because she seemed to have acquired it during her spooky tea parties with Shane and he still didn't know much about those.

"It was very much like my friends tell me being a vampire is like," Bonnie replied and Jeremy's eyes flickered to her face, because apart from the false attitude it sounded like she was really answering the question. "Everything is magnified. You worry about people more. You miss people more," her eyes drifted to Jeremy and they exchanged an open, warm smile. "And you also see things you couldn't, didn't see before," she added biting her lip and looking back at Sophie.

"It's not because of death. At least not only because of death," Sophie said, turning a page in one of the books. "It's what expression enables you to do."

"Have you been practicing it for long?" Jeremy asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Not very long," Sophie answered after the briefest moment of hesitation, not looking at them. "I'm not very good at controlling it yet," she added in a lighter tone, glancing up at them with a small smile.

"Yeah, it's not easy," Bonnie confirmed in that feigned, friendly manner again. "Is Caroline still outside?" She changed the subject, wrinkling her forehead and shifting her eyes to Jeremy.

"I'll go check," Jeremy said, turning toward the door.

"Tell her that if she doesn't go home and get some rest I'll force her to go to a masquerade ball with Lucy," Bonnie said in a jocular tone, snorting under her breath and giving Sophie another smile, making it seem like she was making some well-established silly inside joke. Sophie smiled back.

"I will," Jeremy said with a chuckle, having not the faintest idea what Bonnie was talking about.

It hit him only half-way down the stairs. Masquerade ball. Lucy. The witch Katherine manipulated into putting a binding spell on her and Elena. Jeremy's face drained of all color at the realization. Witches. Caroline. The binding spell. Was Sophie's life tied to Caroline's?

xxxdelenaxxx

The memory drifted away, but the room was quiet and when Damon risked taking a look around it was empty and free of hallucinatory appearances. With a twitch of his nose he extended his hand and after a moment of looking at it intensely, pressed the knob.

The door opened.

Stifling a sigh of relief he stormed out of Stefan's room to run to his and get Elena out of there, but before he took more than three steps he slipped and fell.

The hallway floor was covered with ice and snow.

Getting up with an annoyed frown, Damon rushed to his room minding his steps a little more. He pushed the door, letting go of a breath when it opened.

"Elena?" He scanned the room, only after a second noticing a figure curled up near the closet on the floor. "Elena!"

He fell to his knees next to her and pulled her into an embrace.

"Damon." Her arms flew to his shoulders and wrapped around his neck.

He could hear the tears in her voice and he hugged her tightly to him, briefly closing his eyes with a grimace. "Are you OK?" He asked in a hushed voice.

"I am now," she answered with a weak smile, looking up at him when he cupped her face in his hands, looking at her with concern. "You?" She whispered hesitatingly.

He wiped the tears off her face with his thumbs. "I'll feel better if you commit the next few hours to kissing me," he said, mirroring her expression.

She tried to smile more but winced instead and leaned her forehead against his. "It will make me feel better too," she whispered, lowering her lips to his, letting him take control of the kiss, kissing him back with fervent passion.

The kiss ended abruptly when suddenly a gust of freezing cold wind swept over them and they looked at each other, their teeth almost chattering at the unexpected sense of cold enveloping them.

The floor in their bedroom began freezing over in front of them, more and more snow blowing in from the hallway.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all the amazing reviews! :):):)

I'm still recovering from 5x02! What an awesome episode. And THE KISS! *faints* lol

**Beta:** **arabian** (aka **arabean**) - Thank you SO MUCH! :]

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 17**

Jeremy really didn't know why he didn't think it was a bad idea to speak so freely in front of Klaus, but for some reason he was past thinking clearly and felt that relying on his intuition was the only way to go.

"If she dies, I die?" Caroline repeated, blinking.

"That's what I think Bonnie was trying to say. It makes sense. If that witch is on Silas' side, he'd want to make sure we won't kill her, no matter what."

Caroline groaned under her breath, covering her face with her hands. "My brain is _steaming_ from all these secret alliances and potential back-stabbing going on."

"Who is Lucy?" Klaus asked after a pause, his face grimmer than Jeremy would have expected. As if he really cared about the safety of any of them.

Jeremy opened his mouth to answer, but Caroline cut him off. "Lucy!" She exclaimed with renewed energy, sliding her hands off her face. "She helped us once, when she found out her and Bonnie were distant cousins or something. She's a Bennett witch! Maybe she could help us with Silas! We could work everything out behind that Sophie person's back. We need to find her!"

Caroline looked between Klaus and Jeremy enthusiastically and frowned when neither of them seemed to share her enthusiasm. "Is anyone going to say something?" Caroline huffed, twitching her nose.

"Even if you're right," Jeremy said carefully. "We have no idea where she is. We haven't heard from her ever since that masquerade ball and Bonnie doesn't really know anything about her except that they are distantly related. How are we supposed to find her within a couple of days?"

"Well, contrary to what my history with one particular Petrova doppelganger might suggest," Klaus said, drawing their attention to him. "I happen to be quite good at finding people," he smirked.

xxxdelenaxxx

"There," Damon adjusted the thick strap under Elena's chin, tucked it into her scarf and adjusted the collar of her coat.

"I must look like a snowman," Elena observed in an unamused voice, glancing up at the rim of her winter hat.

Damon smirked. "More like a gorgeous snow_vamp_," he winked, kissing one of her cheeks and then the other before placing a kiss on her lips.

Elena chuckled a little. "Mirror, mirror on the wall," she muttered, buttoning up his jacket.

"You _are_ the fairest of all," Damon replied with a lop-sided smile, kissing her again and she kissed him back, both of them continuing to almost ignore the snow around them that was now knee-high.

"I don't know why we bother," Elena said with a sigh. "In the next minute he may turn this into a tropical island."

"Then we'll strip _very_ quickly and _very_ slowly start making love on the beach," Damon said with a wink.

Elena laughed. "It's not like we can get cold anyway," she said as an afterthought, raising an eyebrow.

Damon shrugged. "Just wanted to see how you look in ski gear before we actually go skiing. And," he continued with a smile, "I like getting you dressed," he said, pulling the zipper of her jacket up, "and undressing you afterwards," he pulled the zipper back down and then back up and back down a few more times. Elena stifled a smile and buried her face in his neck.

He gathered her closer toward him and they stood for a moment in silence. "How did you make the hallucinations stop?" He asked after a pause in a low voice.

Elena tensed for a second but then answered quietly. "Memories. I was thinking about our summer and-"

"Me too," Damon cut in, smiling into her hair. Elena looked up at him and he kissed her. "And it gave me an idea. Let's go."

xxxdelenaxxx

"I'm going with him just to make sure he really is helping us and not Silas," Caroline said, adjusting the strap of her purse.

"Yeah, yeah," Jeremy muttered, not even trying to sound like he believed her. "It's not like he can compel you or kill you and then do what he wants anyway."

Caroline shot him a narrow-eyed look. "It's his obvious desire to kill me that assured you that taking advantage of his e-mails to me was your best bet in your grand Bonnie scheme, no doubt," she deadpanned.

Jeremy smiled briefly. "I'm not judging you. I'm just thinking that considering your own actions or feelings or whatever, you should cut Elena and Matt some slack."

Caroline wrinkled her forehead. "I'm just worried about them, that's all."

Jeremy sighed. "Yes, Matt, maybe. I'm kind of worried too, to be honest. But Elena? He'd die for her," he added in a low voice with a frown, as if he was just acknowledging this himself.

Before Caroline had a chance to answer, Klaus stopped the car right next to her, walked around it and held the door open for her with a smirk flitting across his face.

With a sigh, Caroline turned toward the car and shooting Klaus a look, got into the car. He went back to his side of the car.

Caroline lowered her window. "Don't tell my mom," she whispered to Jeremy who chuckled mirthlessly and watched the car drive off before heading back to the witch house.

xxxdelenaxxx

Katherine let go of Stefan's hand, having drunk just enough blood to be able to sit up with her back against the wall.

Stefan sat back down, still feeling weak from the loss of blood Silas had said he had drained from him.

"Hoping that if I'm not dead he'll use my body, after all?" Katherine asked with a glint of cynicism in her eyes, turning her head to the side to look at Stefan.

With a mirthless snort, Stefan drew up his knees and lightly shook his head.

"He won't. I'm mortal and he needs an immortal body," Katherine said, looking past him at some invisible point in space.

"Just because you don't do anything without having an ulterior motive, doesn't mean that everyone else doesn't either," Stefan said, leaning his head against the wall.

"Really?" Katherine snarled under her breath. "So you're not hoping that if this whole mess will get miraculously cleared, you might have a chance to win her back?" Stefan lifted his eyes from the floor but said nothing. "Well, let me tell you that you won't. Last time I saw her, she was feeling so utterly and sickeningly confident, carefree and happy she graciously offered me her help and guidance."

"I know this might be hard for you to understand, but that's just the way she is," Stefan retorted.

Katherine chuckled dryly. "No," she drawled. "That's the way people madly in love behave, Stefan." She rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes. "Not that you would know."

Stefan shot her a sideway glance. "Did it ever occur to you that I didn't love you like you wanted me to because you didn't deserve it?"

"Oh, Stefan." Katherine laughed weakly, her laughter turning into a series of coughs. She groaned and drew a shaky breath wincing a little. "You still don't get it, do you?" Slowly, she breathed out. "You don't love people because they deserve to be loved. You deserve to be loved by them because you love them."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Britney? Seriously?" Caroline snorted under her breath, continuing to rummage through Klaus' car music collection.

"I'm sorry to disappoint, love. But I have some Wagner too, if you're interested," Klaus said with a smirk.

"Stop calling me 'love'," Caroline said through her teeth in the most annoyed tone she could muster. Having agreed to, basically, go on a road trip with him she felt like her modes of behavior were kind of limited, but she was surely going to exercise the range of available moods.

"Why?"

"Because."

Klaus pursed his lips and shrugged.

"Stop doing that!"

"Doing what?"

"That!"

Klaus pulled to the side of the road and stopped the car.

"What are you doing?" Caroline shot him an anxious glare.

"I thought you wanted me to stop driving," Klaus said calmly, gesturing innocently toward the steering wheel.

"No! I wanted you to stop- to stop- to stop-" Caroline groaned in exasperation and got out of the car. She shut the door closed and leaned against it.

Unsurprisingly, she soon heard his door open. Klaus walked around the car to stand in front of her. He had a smirk plastered on his face, but her serious expression prompted him to drop it.

"What are you really afraid of, Caroline?" He asked in a low voice. "That you discover that everything, even passion and evil gets old and boring after a while?"

Caroline's eyes darted to his. "No," she said unsmilingly. "I'm afraid to discover that love doesn't conquer all and... I don't want to discover that," she finished barely above a whisper. She held his gaze and could see in his eyes that he was really thinking about what she had said.

"Yes," he said thoughtfully after a longer while, averting his eyes from her. "Me either," he said after another pause, his lips stretching into a brief, agelessly sad smile that he gave her before he walked back to his side of the car.

xxxdelenaxxx

Out of the corner of her eye Elena noticed that the parlor was rather crowded and that there were definitely more people than there had been before, but she didn't really have time to dwell on that because her attention was drawn to where they were headed.

"Why are we going to the basement?" Elena asked in a whisper, sliding her fingers in between Damon's.

"Well, cellars, handcuffs, it was your idea, remember?"

Elena snorted under her breath. "Damon, I'm serious."

"I know. You did say you weren't bluffing."

"Damon!"

He hushed her before pulling her with him across the corridor. They stopped when they reached the end of it.

"It's a wall," Elena said, eying the wall in front of them.

"Try again," Damon said, widening and narrowing his eyes at her with a smirk before examining the surface closely for a second and then pressing his fingers to one, particular spot and pushing the wall.

Elena blinked. "It's a door," she said with a cautious smile.

Damon made a mock-impressed face. "How did you guess that?"

Elena smacked him on the shoulder. He caught her hand and kissed it.

"This way," he said with an exaggeratedly gallant gesture, holding the door for her.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Elena asked uncertainly, stepping forward despite the fact that the dark corridor that was stretching beyond the fake door didn't look very encouraging.

Without a warning Damon picked her up and swept her into his arms bridal style. "I can carry you if you want."

"That's not what I meant," Elena replied with a small laugh that faded a little when the door behind them slowly closed, leaving them in the darkness.

All of a sudden the idea of being carried became rather appealing. Elena wrapped her arms around Damon's neck. "Where does it lead? And what are we doing here anyway?"

"Silas' mind-controlling skills are limited to what he knows. Every thought and memory he managed to catch before the spell was broken."

"Why only before?"

"In one of those books Jeremy had borrowed from Professor Frankenshane, there was a chapter about revived witches, how they lose some of their powers while gain others when they come back to life. Of course it's only a theory, but Silas didn't seem to read anyone's mind these past few days. So I figured that since I haven't even thought about this corridor since... a hundred years or so, there is a pretty good chance he didn't know about it either when he put his spell on the house."

"And it leads outside?" Elena asked hopefully.

"All the way to the forest," Damon replied with a smile she could feel against her skin when she pressed her cheek to his face. "In the meantime," he said, taking advantage of the side of her face being very near his lips and planting a few kisses there,"you can entertain me."

"How?" Elena asked, amused.

"You can sing something for me."

"I don't sing," Elena said immediately and then chuckled under her breath easily imagining his eyebrows raising. "Unless I'm being dragged on a karaoke stage by my newlywed husband."

"You did _very_ well," Damon confirmed happily.

"Everyone was laughing!"

"Nah," Damon shook his head. "The majority were... rendered speechless," he said, not quite succeeding at delivering the line in a serious tone.

Elena poked him. "You're awful."

"You failed to mention _that_ while devouring me on our way back to the hotel," Damon carried on.

"I was drunk!" Elena said, trying very hard not to laugh and sound indignant instead.

"That's not what you said when that policeman stopped us," Damon said and Elena covered his mouth with the palm of her hand but he pulled her hand away and continued, doing his best to mimic drunk Elena's tone. "'Officer, if you continue having a problem with me eating my husband, my husband will eat you.'"

Elena closed her eyes in half-hearted embarrassment, laughing under her breath. She searched for his mouth in the darkness and kissed him.

"I want to go on a road trip again," she whispered against his lips, her tone still light but also serious.

"It wasn't my idea to put a stop to road trips and go to college," Damon replied with a hint of a crooked smile flickering across his face.

Elena was silent for a second. "I just thought it'd be good to keep things normal. For Bonnie and Caroline. For me." She sighed. "You could go to college too, you know," she added after a pause, the more liking this idea the more she was thinking about it. "A century and a half and you don't even have a single degree? You _must_ go to college."

Damon chuckled but then said in a more serious tone than she would like. "I'd just ruin the normal part for you."

"No," she said immediately, tightening her embrace. "No, you wouldn't. You're my normal part and my crazy part." She nuzzled the side of his face. "You're my every part. My everything."

She found herself being lowered to the ground and the next moment she knew they were kissing, her back pressed against the uneven wall.

But then to their mutual surprise the wall gave way and they almost tumbled over it, barely keeping their footing as they held on to each other. The room they suddenly found themselves in was rather dark but then it brightened, the lamp on the ceiling brushing the shadows away.

"Ah, I finally figured how to turn this one on. Rather tricky."

Damon pulled Elena closer to him, his arm wrapped around her.

"I'm sorry," Silas said with a thin smile, stepping forward. "We have a shortage of cells," he said and with that he shoved them in separate ones without even touching either of them.

The locks clicked and Damon and Elena spun around in confusion to see the bars separate them from the rest of the room and each other. They sprang back toward the bars.

"Don't touch those," Stefan's resigned voice drifted to Elena and her eyes widened when she turned around to see him sitting with his back against the wall of the same cell she was in. "They are wooden, soaked in vervain."

Katherine made a mockingly disapproving sound. "Why did you tell her? It could've been the highlight of my boring day."

Elena's eyes shifted to Katherine who was sitting in the separate, adjacent cell and then to Damon who was standing at the opposite end of the same cell Katherine was in.

"Although who knows, maybe I still may find a way to entertain myself," Katherine said, shifting her eyes from Elena to Damon. She tilted her head to the side and began twirling a lock of hair around her finger. "And just what were you up to?" She asked, arching her eyebrow at their winter attire. "Planning on running away to Antarctica?"

Both Damon and Elena ignored her. Elena unzipped her jacket and tossed it on the floor along with her scarf and hat. Damon followed suit.

"It's almost as if you were reading my mind."

Everyone's eyes darted to Silas who appeared in front of the cells again, having soundlessly walked inside. He was carrying a couple of heavy bags that he put on the floor.

"Katherine there might just get her wish, because we're going to play a very entertaining game," Silas quipped, pulling a chair for himself and sitting down, straddling the back of it. "It's called," he let his voice linger and then said with a smile. "Silas says."


End file.
